Will.i.am Slams ICE Raids in L.A. on Mariachi-Hop Tune ‘East L.A.’: ‘They’re Going After People That Make Our City Beautiful’

Will.i.am and Taboo and loud and proud Angelenos. The Black Eyed Peas bandmates give a shout out to their beloved City of Angeles on the recent mariachi-hop track “East L.A.,” a celebration of the city’s diverse culture.

“We are Los Angeles. We are Angelenos. We are Americans. Some of us born here, some of us migrated here. We are a great country and our borders should be protected. You would think that the idea of border control would make residents feel safe – but it’s pumped fear into our communities,” reads a statement that Will expands on at the end of the video that dropped last month in which the duo take aim at the fear and chaos sown by federal immigration raid all around the city as part of the Trump administration’s push to deport the undocumented.

The song interpolates the chorus of the 1999 Santana hit “Maria Maria,” and features a barrage of Spanish and English lyrics paying tribute to life in Los Angeles. “You can see me with the homies on the corner/ Cholos on the GT performer/ Rest in peace for the homie at the corner/ Damn, they say the juras coming better corele/ Homie had a quete, he threw it away/ He don’t want a problem with the chota/ This fool served five years for the coca,” Will raps over the song’s spare bounce in the video in which he and Taboo pose with East L.A. locals; part of the video was filmed at an anti-ICE protest at Los Angeles City Hall.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Will said he was raised in the rare Black family in a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood and that the song is “response music” about what’s going on in their area. “It was important for us as Eastsiders to be able to give a love letter to our childhood and to all the people that Will to this day has advocated for,” he said.

Later in the first verse, Will raps, “I love Mexicanas from the Border/ Make her my wife so ICE won’t deport her,” referring to himself as a “blackxicano.” While Will told RS that he believes protecting the U.S. border is a “must,” he thinks the “sloppy, careless and sprinkled with hate” way the current administration is carrying out the raids — with masked agents looking for “anybody that looks Latin” — is unAmerican.

In the statement released with the song, the pair also took aim at the way ICE has been conducting its raids, writing, “they’re going after people that make our city beautiful. People who put food in our supermarkets, take care of other people’s kids, work two to three jobs so they can take care of their families. It breaks my heart. I wanted to make this video to change the vibe and celebrate the folks that make our cities great. The very same people who are being disregarded, dehumanized, and demoralized.”

Will and Taboo join a growing list of L.A. artists weighing in on the immigrant families who’ve been targeted by ICE, including Ice Cube, who recently said, “To see people disrespected like that, and federal government just being too heavy-handed and disrespectful, going to churches and weddings and grabbing people out of those schools. It’s like, ‘Come on man, y’all just overdoing it. In addition, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Olivia Rodrigo, Kehlani and Tyler, the Creator have also slammed the Trump deportation raids.

Back in June, the L.A. area was hit with protests against President Trump’s mass deportation efforts, which included his deployment 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles against Gov. Gavin Newson’s wishes in what may have been an illegal action; a trial over the legal challenge to the deployment will kick off on Monday (Aug. 11).

Public protests against the raids continued over the weekend, with hundreds of demonstrators gathering in MacArthur Park on Saturday to slam recent actions targeting local Home Depot stores, where more than a dozen people were detained just days earlier in an operation called “Trojan Horse.”

“Black people, my ancestors, know exactly some version of what’s happening right now,” Will says at the end of the video. “We’ve been through what you guys are going through right now. And that’s why I stand in solidarity with Latinos.

Watch the video for “East L.A.” below.