Bruce Springsteen makes strong political statement

Bruce Springsteen sharply criticized the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, during his performance at the Light of Day festival in New Jersey.

His appearance at the charity music festival supporting Parkinson's disease research comes as a surprise because it was not announced.

The musician dedicated his 75-minute set to Renee Good, who was recently shot by an agent of ICE in Minneapolis, before adding how the polarization is testing the country's values, which, he says, have remained at its core for the past 250 years.

Referring to his track Promised Land, he shares, "His next song is probably one of my greatest songs and says he wrote it as an ode to American possibility … both to the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be."

"Now, right now, we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it has never been in modern times. Those values and those ideals have never been as endangered as they are right now.”

Bruce adds that a message must be given to the president that protesting is a right and no one should be killed for it.

"If you believe in democracy, in liberty … if you believe that truth still matters, and that it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for … if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it.”

“If you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading American cities, and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens … if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest … then send a message to this President.”

Bruce concludes his message by calling on the removal of ICE from Minneapolis. “As the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the f*** out of Minneapolis. So this one is for you, and the memory of the mother of three and American citizen Renee Good.”