Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, who is also the eldest daughter of the late country legend Johnny Cash, issued a strong political statement to social media this week.
Cash checked in with a video post from the Nashville Airport, after coming into the city to stay with her daughter through the ice storm that swept through Tennessee and much of the rest of the country last weekend.
Large swaths of Nashville remain without power, several days after the storm hit, and Cash says her daughter’s family was eventually able to move to a hotel despite dangerous travel conditions and several downed trees.
But she also drew her followers’ attention to another issue: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s recent Operation Metro Surge in cities such as Minneapolis, Minn., including an aggressive uptick in deportations and killings of both detainees and citizens.
What Did Rosanne Cash Say About ICE?
Cash noted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is “responsible for disaster relief,” but that she hadn’t seen any such officials working to help Tennesseans stuck in dangerous storm conditions.
Instead, she continued, they’re “too busy shooting private citizens and deporting 5-year-olds.”
“It’s unspeakable,” Cash continued, “and it’s a sign of a country that’s falling apart.”
The singer went on to say that she hasn’t spoken much on the news stories centered around ICE because she hasn’t “known what to say,” but she issued an urgent call to descale the situation.
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“Defund ICE. Not only defund them, prosecute them,” Cash said.
What Specific Incidents Did Cash Bring Up In Her Post?
Cash mentioned ICE shooting private citizens.
- Per The Guardian, eight people have died during encounters with ICE so far in 2026, either while they were in custody or during run-ins with enforcement agents in public. Two of those deaths were especially high-profile.
- One of them was the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 9 while in the driver’s seat of her car.
- On Jan. 24, a VA ICU nurse named Alex Pretti — also 37 — was fatally shot in a confrontation with ICE officers after standing between an agent and a woman the agent had pushed to the ground. Pretti had a gun, which he was legally licensed to carry, but several video angles show that the gun was holstered at the time of the confrontation, and that he was holding only a cell phone when officers tackled him to the ground.
Joel Angel Juarez, Getty Images
Cash also mentioned “deporting 5-year-olds” in her message. She was almost certainly referring to Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy who was apprehended by ICE with his father in the driveway of their suburban Minneapolis home after Liam returned from preschool.
Per CNN, Ramos and his dad were taken to an immigration detention facility in Texas.
See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born
Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
