Vic Mensa sounds alarm on ICE targeting Black Chicagoans

Rapper Vic Mensa calls for unity, vigilance, and resistance as immigration crackdowns escalate in Black neighborhoods.

The presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to grow in cities and communities around the country, with its latest stop being in Chicago, Illinois. Despite state and city officials pushing back on the Trump administration’s efforts to bring federal law enforcement into the city, reports of ICE raids have begun to spread across the Windy City. 

Rapper, actor, and Chicago native Vic Mensa recently took to Instagram to discuss what he calls “the federal government’s war on Chicago.” 

“[ICE] raided a building in South Shore in the middle of the night, a predominantly Black neighborhood, used flash grenades to wake people up, and arrested them naked, rounded up and detained Black people and Venezuelans. ICE is separating Black parents from children, handcuffing the kids, choking out Black men at traffic stops,” he shared. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vic Mensa (@vicmensa)

Immigration has been a top priority for Trump since his first presidential term in 2017. However, after voter data from the 2024 elections was released, many Black communities, who once called out the Trump administration for wrongfully targeting Hispanic and Latino communities, opted to stay silent. 

“I even heard a young brother in the video say, ‘y’all supposed to be choking out Mexicans,’” Mensa recalled sharing some of the rhetoric heard in Black communities regarding immigration. “Many of us said when this s— started, this is our problem. ICE is our problem. I was met with so much denial: ‘No, thank you.’ ‘I think we’ll sit this one out,’ but we don’t have that luxury.”

He continued: “When the f— are we gonna realize, as a community, that we are a part of the struggle of all oppressed people? We don’t have a choice. Black people in America are so deeply entrenched in systems of oppression that an oppression against anyone is invariably going to spill into our backyard.” 

Now there’s a myriad of explanations for the divide that sometimes exists between Black and Latino communities. However, the 2024 elections appear to have significantly impacted the division we’re seeing today. According to Pew Research, nearly half of Hispanic voters voted for Trump in the past election, marking a 12-point increase from the 2020 elections (48% in 2024, 36% in 2020). 

“The divisions between Black and Latino people are significant. There are valid concerns,” Mensa noted, “But at this moment, it’s suicidal to not be unified, because the same agents of the state are attacking, abducting, and killing us both at the same time. And they’re relying on our separation right now.” 

In addition to being unified, the actor encouraged viewers to be educated on their rights, film every interaction they see with these officials, to communicate with their neighbors, and most importantly, be safe “because the Gestapo has arrived, and this s—t is not sweet.”