Hayley Williams is not backing down from the anti-ICE comments she made during her Saturday night concert at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, 10 miles south of San Diego.
While performing her sixth song of the show, 2025’s loping “Ice In My OJ,” Williams drew cheers when she shouted: “(expletive) ICE!” and “Free (expletive) Palestine!”
This is apparently not the first time on her current tour that Williams has added pro-Palestine and anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement comments to her performances of “Ice In MY OJ.”
But it is the first time she has done so in such close proximity to Mexico. The nearly 20,000-capacity North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre is just a 12-minute drive from the U.S./Mexico border crossing at Otay Mesa.
Williams’ comments were relayed by Fox News to the Department of Homeland Security, which responded by issuing the following statement: “America is grateful all the time for our federal law enforcement officers who keep us safe. We suggest Ms. Williams to thank them for their service, not belittle their sacrifice.”
On Monday, Williams made it clear she had no intention of offering any thanks or apologizing. In a brief comment posted on her Instagram Stories, Williams referred to DHS as “Nazi (expletive)” and other sexually explicit comments.
That Williams has no intention of backing down should not come as a surprise. Her 2025 song “True Believer” takes aim at White supremacy and Christian nationalism with such lacerating lines as: “They put up chain link fences underneath the biggest bridges / They pose in Christmas cards with guns as big as all their children / They say that Jesus is the way but then they gave him a white face / So they don’t have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them / The South will not rise again / Till it’s paid for every sin / Strange fruit, hard bargain / Till the roots, Southern Gotham.”
At some of the concerts on her current tour, Williams has introduced “True Believer” by saying that “the greatest threat to American democracy is Christian nationalism.”
The 37-year-old singer first recorded when she was 13 and contributed vocals to a Christian multimedia project called Mammoth City Messengers. Both with her band Paramore and as a solo act, she has become one of the most popular female musicians of her generation.
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