Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not follow through on threats to conduct immigration enforcement operations during Sunday’s Super Bowl, The Washington Post reports this Monday.
The newspaper received a document from the host committee for elected officials in San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Jose after the committee spoke with NFL security and law enforcement on Friday.
“We have been in daily contact with the NFL, which has confirmed the following with the Department of Homeland Security: There are no planned ICE immigration enforcement operations related to SBLX,” the committee letter said.
In “coordination with NFL security and local law enforcement, DHS will have federal agents at the Super Bowl to protect fans… the federal security presence at SBLX is consistent with past Super Bowls and similar to how DHS protects other major sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup.”
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In October, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem made veiled threats to those who are not “American” about ICE’s presence at the big game in Santa Clara, California. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots have since gone on to the big game.
“We’ll be everywhere there,” she said said a right-wing journalist Bennie Johnson. “We’re going to enforce the law. So I don’t think people should come to the Super Bowl unless they’re law-abiding Americans who love this country.”
Before that, DHS advisor Corey Lewandowski made a more direct threat when asked if ICE would “get enforcement at the Super Bowl for the halftime show of the Bad Bunny Super Bowl.”
“There is no place where you can provide safe haven for people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski responded. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you. We will arrest you. We will put you in a detention center and we will deport you.”
In a statement to HuffPost, DHS said it would not provide details about its Super Bowl operation, but added: “Those who are here legally and are not breaking any other laws have nothing to fear.”
The NFL’s announcement that Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar critical of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, would perform the halftime show sparked a wave of right-wing objections last year.
The rapper fired another salvo at Trump and Co. during the Grammy Awards on Sunday. “Before I thank God, I want to say: ICE out,” he said. “We are not wild animals. We are not animals. We are not aliens. We are human beings and we are Americans.”
DHS agents have come under increased scrutiny after killing two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
Protests even reached the Winter Olympics in Italy, when people in Milan demonstrated against the presence of ICE, even though the agency will not be deployed on the streets.
