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Vic Mensa is using his platform to speak out against what he sees as government-backed violence in his hometown.
On Sunday, the Chicago rapper published a striking opinion piece in The New York Times unpacking how federal policies under Donald Trump have fueled chaos in immigrant and Black communities across the city.
Mensa also took to Instagram to share the article, calling out what he described as the “militarization of immigration enforcement” happening on Chicago streets. “Don’t fall for it,” he wrote in his caption. “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott literally bussed the Venezuelan immigrants to the city to freeze in the Chicago winter. Now they’ve sent their troops in to come abduct them and attack the city’s citizens in the process—it’s civil war lite.”
In his essay, Mensa draws parallels between U.S. immigration operations and wartime tactics, describing agents “rappelling out of helicopters like in a scene from Black Hawk Down” as they raided an apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. He recounts families being zip-tied and children separated from their parents, painting a grim picture of a city under siege.
The Roc Nation artist also highlights how the relocation of Venezuelan migrants to Chicago—an effort he says was engineered for political theater—has only deepened humanitarian strain. “The apparent chaos of these arrivals, hyped by the right-wing media, helped re-elect Donald Trump,” Mensa writes, “and it led directly to what happened this past week, when the federal government began treating my city like enemy territory.”
Mensa’s op-ed marks another chapter in his ongoing activism, adding a fierce, firsthand voice to the national debate over immigration, policing, and power.
