Doechii calls out ICE deportations during BET Awards speech, urging unity and resistance: “We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear.”
At the June 9 BET Awards in Downtown Los Angeles, rising star Doechii—fresh off her first-ever attendance—used her moment in the spotlight to issue an unflinching rebuke of the contemporaneous ICE deportation raids unfolding just outside the Peacock Theater.
As she accepted the trophy for Best Female Hip Hop Artist, she prefaced her remarks by honoring her fellow nominees, then pivoted to the urgent humanitarian crisis gripping the city. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,” she declared, framing the raids as a deliberate campaign of intimidation rather than a mere enforcement action.
Doechii condemned the deployment of U.S. military forces—National Guard troops and Marines—against protestors exercising their democratic rights. “Trump is using military forces to stop a protest,” she said, challenging the audience to consider what kind of government dispatches armed personnel to quell peaceful demonstrations.
She decried the tactic of tearing families apart, noting that countless individuals are being “swept up and torn from their families” under the guise of immigration control.
Calling on her peers and the viewing public to stand in solidarity, she exhorted, “We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear, and I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate and we protest against it.”
Later, in a cover story for British Vogue, Doechii distilled her sense of duty into a potent six-word manifesto: “I was born to do this.” She explained that, although fame brings its own pressures to remain apolitical, she felt a moral imperative to leverage her platform at that very moment—knowing that the live broadcast left authorities with no chance to suppress her message.
The context for her impassioned plea was a series of large-scale, militarized ICE operations sweeping through Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Westlake, Cypress Park, the Fashion District, and Koreatown, as well as workplaces including Home Depot locations and garment wholesalers.
Federal agents, backed by roughly 4,000 service members, arrested at least 118 people in the initial sweeps, with estimates later exceeding 330 across Southern California. Community outrage flared into street protests in areas like Paramount, Compton, and downtown L.A., where law enforcement responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, curfews, and mass arrests—over 575 in one incident alone.
In defending her on-air call-out, Doechii later told reporters, “I’m not that desensitized, and it felt right. I felt like I needed to use that moment,” underscoring her belief that artists bear a unique responsibility to amplify marginalized voices.
By weaving together her own narrative of empowerment with a broader plea for justice, she transformed an awards acceptance into a rallying cry—one that resonates far beyond the walls of the Peacock Theater.
