Cardi B sparked controversy this week after a heated exchange with the United States Department of Homeland Securityon X, formerly known as Twitter, over comments she made about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The exchange began during the opening night of her “Little Miss Drama” tour in California’s Coachella Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 11. Performing at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, the rapper told the audience that concertgoers would “jump” ICE agents if they attempted to attend her shows.
“I got some bear mace in the back. It’s like the mafia in this,” she told the crowd, according to videos shared on social media.
The Department of Homeland Security responded the following day on X, referencing resurfaced comments Cardi B made during a 2019 Instagram livestream in which she discussed drugging and robbing clients while working as a stripper.
“As long as she doesn’t drug and rob our agents, we’ll consider that an improvement over her past behavior,” Homeland Security wrote on X Thursday, Feb. 12.
Cardi B fired back on the platform, shifting attention to the Justice Department’s gradual release of files connected to the late financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“If we talking about drugs, let’s talk about Epstein and friends drugging underage girls to r@pe them. Why y’all don’t wanna talk about the Epstein files?” she wrote.
According to a Feb. 1 review by The New York Times, files released by the Justice Department on Jan. 30 mention Donald Trump, his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and other references to the former president approximately 38,000 times across 5,300 documents, though several of the files reportedly appear to be duplicates.
The online back-and-forth has fueled fresh debate over immigration enforcement, political accountability, and the role of celebrities in shaping public discourse.
