No ICE at Super Bowl, Democrats Demand as Rumors Swirl

As the Bay Area gears up for Sunday’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna and other California Democrats are demanding that no immigration enforcement operations occur at the game.

Khanna, whose district includes Levi’s Stadium, where the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will take place, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday seeking assurances that no such plans are in the works to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other immigration officers.

“Having ICE at the Super Bowl would undermine public safety, disrupt communities, and threaten the peaceful enjoyment this event should bring to the region and nation,” Khanna wrote.

The demands follow nationwide protests over the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis in recent weeks amid what Khanna called “aggressive and often indiscriminate ICE operations [that] have caused real harm.”

The letter was signed by 21 other Democratic House members from California, including Reps. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Zoe Lofgren of San José.

On Wednesday morning, Khanna’s office said it had not received a response to the letter from the Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement to KQED, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the department is working with local and federal agencies as it does for every major sporting event.

“We will not disclose future operations or discuss personnel. Super Bowl security will entail a whole-of-government response conducted in line with the U.S. Constitution,” McLaughlin said. “Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”

In October, after Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime show’s headline entertainment, Noem said ICE would be “all over” the Super Bowl, advising that the only people who should attend the game are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.”

Upping the ante Sunday, Bad Bunny said “ICE out” during his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. “We’re not aliens,” he said before a live television audience upon accepting the Best Música Urbana award for his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos. “We are humans, and we are Americans,” he added.

In response, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the singer for “trying to demonize law enforcement.”

But at its annual pre-Super Bowl public safety press conference on Tuesday, NFL chief security officer Cathy Lanier said, “There are no planned ICE enforcement activities.”

Still, Khanna said, “We’ve heard rumors that ICE was thinking of doing something at the Super Bowl, but nothing alarming or confirmed, but I wanted to be proactive in making sure that we keep ICE out.”

A memo this week from the Bay Area Host Committee, which works to bring major sporting events to the region, stated, “There are no planned ICE immigration enforcement operations associated with [the Super Bowl]. In coordination with NFL security and local law enforcement, DHS will have federal agents at the Super Bowl to keep fans safe.”

The message goes on to say the federal presence “is consistent with past Super Bowls.”

“I mean, this is a national event,” Khanna told KQED. “We have the world’s attention. The last thing we need is ICE raids, harassing people or creating conflict that will disrupt one of the great American traditions.”

The Super Bowl comes amid rising tension between Democrats and the White House over ICE tactics.

A bill to fund DHS has been held up while changes to ICE tactics are negotiated. Among the things Democrats are demanding: a ban on face masks for ICE officers; a requirement to obtain judicial warrants before taking people out of their homes, cars or workplaces; an explicit prohibition on ICE detaining or deporting U.S. citizens; and guarantees of independent, transparent investigations into excessive use of force by ICE agents.

Noem already announced this week that DHS field officers, including ICE, would have body cameras, starting with those in Minnesota, another demand by Democrats.

And earlier Wednesday, Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” who was sent to Minnesota after the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents, said 700 immigration agents would be pulled from Minnesota, leaving about 2,000 federal officers in the state.

The controversy comes as the NFL is expanding its footprint internationally, with nine games planned for outside the U.S next season. At a press event this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “We have a really big announcement from my standpoint, [which] is we’re heading back to Mexico City in December, which I think is wonderful for our fans in Mexico.”

Goodell, known as a shrewd marketer of football, must know that a controversial immigration enforcement action by ICE agents at the Super Bowl would not go over well south of the border — or in the U.S.