For months now, Donald Trump’s administration has been threatening to send ICE agents to Super Bowl LX, which will take place on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. As local officials and law enforcement prepare to execute on months of security and logistics planning, the prospect of a last-minute incursion by ICE is casting a pall over one of American sporting events on the planet.
“It’s been months where there’s been threats of them coming. Constant, constant threats,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I have not been privy to any information that they’re [actually] coming. … They don’t tell our police department when they’re coming, yeah, if they’re coming at all.”
The anxiety over ICE’s presence at the event comes as the nation grapples with the fallout of two killings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Days into the new year, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good — a U.S. citizen and mother of three — in a residential area of Minneapolis. A few weeks later, 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti was killed by a group of federal agents, who shot him 10 times. The Trump administration claimed both victims were domestic terrorists intent on killing ICE agents despite widespread video evidence refuting this.
The two deaths are the culmination of increasingly militarized, aggressive tactics being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security over the course of the administration’s deportation surge. ICE agents have been accused of brutalizing everyone from citizens to detainees, and of engaging in racial profiling when conducting searches and arrests.
The prospect of an ICE presence at the Super Bowl emerged after it was announced that Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny would be headlining the halftime show, and that the performance would take place entirely in Spanish. The announcement roiled the MAGA universe — especially given that Bad Bunny had previously declined to add U.S. dates to his world tour over concerns that immigration authorities would target fans at his shows. Bad Bunny’s criticism of the administration continued on Sunday, a week before he’ll perform at the Super Bowl, when he spoke out against ICE during one of his acceptance speeches at the Grammy’s.
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“Before I say, ‘Thank God,’ I’m going to say, ‘ICE out,’” Bad Bunny said. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
Shortly after he was announced as the Super Bowl halftime show performer last fall, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a right-wing influencer that ICE would be “all over” the Super Bowl. Trump claimed at the time that he had “never heard” of Bad Bunny, and said recently that he would not be attending the game. He called Bad Bunny and Green Day — who will play the game’s pre-show and are long-time critics of the president — “terrible.”
“We are excited about Bad Bunny — apparently the president isn’t — and we have Green Day also […] it’s entertainment, it’s a show, it’s great music,” Gillmor, the Santa Clara mayor, says. “We should be celebrating that we are hosting one of the largest, if not the largest, event on the planet. Instead, we’re talking about the installation of fear in our community,” Gillmor says. “It’s brought real fear.
Gillmor explains that it’s not uncommon for the city and local law enforcement to coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security for major entertainment events hosted by Levi’s Stadium. Super Bowls and concerts by stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift bring tens of thousands into the city on a regular basis. ICE supplementing DHS at Super Bowls is not unusual, but their operations have typically focused on coordinating federal anti-terrorism protocol and aiding the relatively small local police force. The threats now being made by the Trump administration are tied to their anti-immigration ICE surge.
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DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to TMZ last week that the agency would have a visible presence around Levi’s Stadium on the day of the Super Bowl. “Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear,” she said. The NFL, NFL Players Association, as well as the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots front offices did not respond to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote that federal and local security coordination for major events “is for safety — traffic, crowd control, and emergency response — not immigration enforcement. Although we don’t anticipate unusual ICE activity, California will work with state and local officials to ensure everyone’s safety. We expect our federal partners to uphold safety, transparency, and trust.”
In a video released on social media, Santa Clara Police Chief Cory Morgan addressed the rumors of ICE’s presence at the Super Bowl. Morgan highlighted partnerships with local, regional, and federal law enforcement “built over many years” that are “essential to managing large scale events safely and effectively.”
Morgan clarified that “the Santa Clara Police Department is the lead law enforcement agency for public safety planning and coordination,” related to the Super Bowl, and that “public safety is best served through discipline, planning, professional coordination and actions grounded in law and real conditions, rather than statements, pronouncements or symbolic actions that can unintentionally heighten tension.”
“Our community is very upset, and especially after what happened in Minneapolis,” Gillmor says. “I know that protests are coming. ICE protests are already being organized now, but, is something going to happen? I hope not. I pray that it doesn’t, and everyone stays safe.”
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For local officials, the fear — and what they have observed in ICE deployments to other states — is that the agency is comfortable disregarding and dismissing the presence and work of local law enforcement.
“I fear that if ICE comes in, they won’t care,” Gillmor says. “They’re going to do what they want to do. I think that’s the scary part […] a fear of the unknown, the unpredictability of their actions.”
