Singer Lady Gaga joined the chorus of critics blasting Arizona's controversial new immigration law during a sold-out concert in Phoenix this weekend, the Arizona Republic reported.
"We have to be active. We have to protest. . . . I will yell and I will scream louder," the 24-year-old pop sensation told the sold-out audience at the US Airways Center. "I will hold you, and we will hold each other, and we will peaceably protest this state."
Polls find a majority of Americans support Arizona's SB 1070 law, which cracks down on illegal immigration, but the law has become a charged issue for critics and supporters alike.
A federal judge blocked the part of the law - which went into effect July 29 - that allowed police to detain people on suspected of being illegal immigrants as a violation of the constitutional ban on unreasonable search and seizure.
During Saturday's concert, Lady Gaga told the crowd about a boy she met earlier in the day who's home was raided over "a parking ticket or something," and whose brother was deported to Mexico, the newspaper reported.
Calling the case "disgusting," the star, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, dedicated the song "You and I" to the boy.
"I think it's important that people understand that it's a state of emergency for this place and this state," she said.
But Lady Gaga stopped short of dumping her Arizona tour dates like big name actsKanye West and Rage Against the Machine who boycotted the state in protest of SB 1070.
"I got a phone call from a couple really big rock and rollers, big pop stars, big rap artists, and they said, 'We'd like you to boycott Arizona . . . because of SB 1070," she told the cheering crowd.
"I said, 'Do you really think that us dumb (expletive) pop stars are going to collapse the economy of Arizona?"
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