During a recent concert performance, musician Dave Matthews, frontman for the Dave Matthews Band, openly criticized federal immigration enforcement agents, referring to them as "a--holes" while on stage.
Matthews expressed his dismay regarding societal conflict, questioning the justifications often used for violence. "I don’t know why we let people make excuses for why we should kill each other, you know?" he remarked. "There’s always reasons that we should kill each other. They tell our children and use their words when they — when they grow up. I wonder what’s wrong with us. I don’t know why we lost our way. So it feels — but maybe we’ve always been like this, we just got better at making things that can kill each other," he said in a widely circulated video clip from the event.
He then directed his comments to a specific incident, referencing a recent fatality in Houston, Texas. "Anyway, I wanted to say his name. I wrote it down so I didn’t forget it, this young man who was — well, old man, but we’re all young — this father and grandfather who was murdered by ICE in Houston, Texas," Matthews stated. He added that the individual was reportedly not the intended target of the operation. "And then they say he’s not even the guy — he’s not even the guy they were looking for. Well, then don’t pull the trigger, you a--holes."
Acknowledging the intensity of his language, Matthews offered an apology. "So I just wanted to say, I’m sorry if that language offends his family or his friends or his community, but it’s just making me mad anyway," he explained. He then dedicated a moment to the memory of the deceased. "So I want to send this to the memory of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed a few days ago in Houston by ICE," he concluded.
In response to the incident, authorities stated that Araujo attempted to evade officers and "weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer, resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense."
Previous Criticisms of Federal Enforcement
This is not the first time Matthews has publicly criticized federal immigration agents. Following the death of activist Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year during an altercation with agents, Matthews shared his views in a video posted to his social media.
In that previous message, he asserted, "I don’t want my taxes to pay for ICE, to masked thugs to roam our streets and terrorize our communities and rip families apart. We should be taking care of each other. We should be minding each other. We should be housing the homeless. We shouldn’t be, you know, throwing people to the ground." He continued, referencing the Minneapolis incident directly: "Which brings me to Renee Nicole Good. Murdered in front of her fellow citizens in Minneapolis, murdered in the streets, and no matter what narrative this administration is trying to sell us, we can see the videos."