Bruce Springsteen will join the millions of Americans expected to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown during Saturday’s nationwide No Kings demonstrations with a performance of his resistance ballad “Streets of Minneapolis” at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.
Springsteen said he wrote the song “in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis” after federal immigration enforcement officers shot to death Renee Good and Alex Pretti in the city. The shootings in January occurred during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on the Democratic-run city.
The famed American rock musician has emerged as a vocal critic of the administration’s harsh immigration agenda. He lent his iconic 1984 hit “Born in the U.S.A.” to the American Civil Liberties Union’s campaign to uphold birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments next month in the class-action lawsuit Trump v. Barbara, which challenges the legality of the president’s attempt to bypass the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee.
The No Kings movement has mobilized millions of peaceful protesters in cities across the country since Trump returned to the White House last year. The purpose of the demonstrations is to push back on Trump’s attempted expansion of executive power and his influence over the country’s judiciary, according to the organizers.
“The president thinks his rule is absolute,” the No Kings organizers said in a statement. “But in America, we don’t have kings — and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.” Saturday’s is expected to be the largest No Kings demonstration to date, according to the organizers, who are projecting a turnout of at least 4 million demonstrators. The last two No Kings protests, in June and October, drew millions of participants. After his performance in St. Paul on Saturday, Springsteen will kick off his “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour” on March 31 at Target Center in Minneapolis.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky. Recommended
It could also top turnout for the 2017 Women’s March, widely thought to be the single-largest day of peaceful demonstrations in American history. That protest — the day after Trump’s first inauguration — drew an estimated 5 million attendees.
