Tens of thousands of people hav e rallied to call for Nicki Minaj‘s deportation, according to a recent petition on Change.org.
In the weeks since the rapper appeared on stage at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest event on Dec. 21 in Phoenix alongside Erika Kirk — who was married to the late far-right media personality Charlie Kirk — nearly 50,000 people have signed an online protest calling for Minaj to be sent back to her home country of Trinidad. The musician moved to the United States when she was 5 years old, and in 2024, she said in a livestream that she still wasn’t a U.S. citizen.
Published Dec. 27 alongside a photo of Minaj high-fiving Erika, the petition’s description reads, “This is personal for those of us who watched Nicki rise as a beacon of hope, only to feel abandoned by her shift in values.”
“Her public platform carries weight and responsibility, and her recent statements are a stark contrast to the solidarity she once showed, leaving many feeling deflated and disillusioned,” it continues. “Deporting Nicki Minaj back to Trinidad would serve as a reminder that public figures need to be accountable for their words and the broader impact they have on diverse communities.”
Billboard has reached out to Minaj’s reps for comment.
Many of the people who signed the petition echoed their disappointment for the hip-hop hitmaker’s recent alignment with Turning Point and the Donald Trump administration, which has cracked down on immigrant communities this past year through a series of ICE raids and mass deportations across the country. Seven years ago, during the twice-impeached POTUS’ first White House term, Minaj voiced opposition to his immigration policies, drawing on her own experiences.
“I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5,” she wrote on Instagram in 2018. “This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now? Not knowing if their parents are dead or alive, if they’ll ever see them again…”
But now, it seems Minaj has changed her tune. Shortly before calling Trump and Vice President JD Vance “role models” during her Turning Point USA appearance, the rapper praised the administration for intervening in the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria, shortly after which she spoke on the matter at a United Nations event in New York.
“I would like to thank President Trump for prioritizing this issue,” she said at the November event. “And his leadership on the global stage in calling for urgent action to defend Christians in Nigeria and to combat extremism and to bring a stop to violence against those who simply want to express their natural right to freedom of religion or belief.”
