Khalid ditches birthday celebration to call out ICE in hopeful post
Khalid has joined other celebrities in calling out ICE. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for It’s Good x Rivian)
R&B singer Khalid has skimmed over posting about celebrate his birthday, instead choosing to call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brutality in the US.
Khalid, who came out publicly as gay after he was outed on social media in 2024, used his 28th birthday on Tuesday (10 February) to call for action against ICE.
Joining celebrities such as Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, singer Billie Eilish and Team GB’s Gus Kenworthy – who have all spoken out against Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration regime – Khalid urged his fans, peers and supporters to join him in speaking up about ICE.
The post, which announced that he’s partnered with the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota and the National Trust for Historic Prevention to raise funds, read: “I want to say happy birthday to me, but it feels really difficult to be happy with the knowledge of the hundreds of thousands of families impacted and affected by ICE in our communities.”
He continued: “As the state of our society grows more dim and dismal, celebrating another year of life as families are stripped apart, going without food, and confusion and pain runs rampant in the street we walk in, I start to think about all of the birthdays that immigrant children, parents, grandparents, cousins, nieces and nephews, teachers and students, everyday workers, and most importantly citizens, who are missing from their families. All of the empty rooms and broken homes speak volumes, but the visibility alone isn’t enough.”
‘Democracy is at the brink of existence’
Khalid went on to highlight Black History Month, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, noting that the “injustice that Black Americans face should not go unnoticed and should be spoke about”.
This year, president Donald Trump’s National Black History Month proclamation omitted any references to Black Americans’ struggle to secure freedom from slavery or endurance of racial inequality.
Khalid went on to highlight that the Trump administration’s bid to reframe US history has led him to feel that “democracy is at the brink of existence”.
The singer went on to hope not for gifts but for restoration, families to be reunited and healing of Black voices in the US and its education system.
“I hope for change in this country,” he added, before sharing that he has donated $40,000 to assist The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and the African American Heritage Action Fund.
Khalid released After the Sun Goes Down – his first album after coming out as gay – in October last year.
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