“CAME TO MINNEAPOLIS TO ENFORCE THE LAW — OR SO THEIR STORY GOES.” Bruce Springsteen surprise-released “Streets of Minneapolis,” a raw protest song written, recorded, and shared within days of the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Dedicated to Minneapolis and “our innocent immigrant neighbors,” the track addresses fear, state violence, and grief without polish or distance. Springsteen said he kept the first full take — flaws and all — because “If it sounds clean, it’s a lie,” turning the song into a stark document of the moment rather than a nostalgic release.

Bruce Springsteen has released a new song dedicated to Minnesota’s largest city as a response to “the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis” and the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in the city.

In a message shared on social media, Springsteen explained: “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free.”

The song’s lyrics paint a picture of unrest, noting how “a city aflame fought fire and ice ’neath an occupier’s boots”, a force Springsteen identifies as “King Trump’s private army from the DHS”.

A particularly somber moment comes when Springsteen honors the victims directly, singing: “There were bloody footprints / Where mercy should have stood / And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets / Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”

Political commentary has long been a part of Springsteen’s work and public persona. Earlier this month, he condemned the administration’s “Gestapo tactics” related to an increased presence of immigration officers during a concert, warning that the nation’s founding principles “have never been as endangered as they are right now”.

At the performance in his home state of New Jersey, Springsteen also paid tribute to Renee Good by dedicating his 1978 song The Promised Land to the 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minnesota.

The musician has been a critic of Donald Trump since before his first term, telling a London audience in October 2016 (a month before Trump won the presidential election for the first time): “It’s a terrible thing that’s happening in the States. He’s undermining the entire democratic tradition.”

At a show in May in the UK, he said: “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.”

The US president responded to Springsteen’s remarks by calling the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member “highly overrated”, “not a talented guy” and a “pushy, obnoxious jerk”.