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Dave Matthews, lead singer of the Dave Matthews Band, condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as “a–holes” during a Friday concert.
“I don’t know why we let people make excuses for why we should kill each other, you know?” Matthews said. “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 viral video clip of the concert.
“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. 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.”
“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, 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 added.
ICE SAYS OFFICER SHOT AND KILLED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO TRIED TO RAM HIM WITH CAR IN HOUSTON
Dave Matthews performs with Dave Matthews Band at Madison Square Garden on November 17, 2023, in New York City. (Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage)
Illegal immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican citizen, was shot and killed in Houston after he allegedly tried to ram U.S. ICE officers during an operation, the agency said Tuesday. ICE officers were attempting to conduct a traffic stop at around 6:50 a.m., an ICE spokesperson told Digital.
Araujo tried evading the ICE officers when he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer, resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
OKLAHOMA STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION STAFF ATTORNEY UNDER REVIEW AFTER VIDEO OF ANTI-ICE TIRADE
ICE agents depart the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Feb. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minn. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Matthews has condemned ICE agents before. After the killing of activist Renee Good in Minneapolis amid an altercation with ICE agents in February, he spoke out in a video on his Instagram.
“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 said.
“Which brings me to Renee Nicole Good,” he continued. “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.”
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A woman holds a sign reading “ICE OUT OF HOUSTON” during a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national fatally shot by a federal immigration agent a day prior, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)
Digital contacted ICE for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
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Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
