Fans of Zach Bryan may be thrilled about his upcoming music, but some officials from the United States government are not pleased.

Specifically, Tricia McLaughlin — the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security — expressed her discontent regarding a lyric from the country singer-songwriter that references U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a recent song teaser he shared on Instagram. The controversial line features Bryan lamenting, “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door.”

In response, McLaughlin stated to TMZ on Tuesday (Oct. 7) that Bryan should “stick to ‘Pink Skies,’” referencing the musician’s top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024.

Billboard has reached out to Bryan’s representative and the Department of Homeland Security for comments.

The comments from the DHS official came four days after the Grammy winner released a snippet of an unreleased song, captioned, “the fading of the red white and blue.”

“I heard the cops came/ Cocky motherf–kers, ain’t they?” Bryan sings in the full verse in question. “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/ Try to build a house no one builds no more/ But I got a telephone/ Kids are all scared and all alone … The middle finger’s rising, and it won’t stop showing/ Got some bad news/ The fading of the red, white and blue.”

The lyrics quickly ignited backlash from supporters of the Donald Trump administration’s strict immigration policies, which included mass deportations through ICE raids across various regions in the U.S. Conversely, Bryan’s song aligns him with many other artists who have voiced their concerns regarding the treatment of immigrants in the country over the past year.

One such artist is Bad Bunny, who was recently announced as the performer for the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show. This news also elicited a response from the DHS, with adviser Corey Lewandowski stating that ICE agents would be present during the Puerto Rican rapper’s performance at the event.

“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said on The Benny Show on Oct. 1. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”