The anti-ICE movement is upping the pressure on the NFL to ban federal immigration patrols from Sunday’s Super Bowl, though the league says there are no plans for deportation operations during the championship game between the Seahawks and Patriots.
More than 195,000 people have signed a petition addressed to the NFL: “No ICE at the 2026 Super Bowl!”
“We cannot let ICE terrorize our communities and our families at the largest single sporting event in the U.S,” the petition on MoveOn reads. “Will you sign the petition to tell the NFL: No ICE at the Super Bowl NOW?”
NFL security chief Cathy Lanier said that ICE agents would have no role at the Super Bowl held at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“There’s no planned ICE enforcement activities,” she said. “We are confident of that.”
Still, the liberal group delivered the petition to the NFL’s New York City headquarters this week and hosted a rally outside.
When the NFL announced that the halftime performer would be Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking artist who is an outspoken critic of President Trump and ICE, many Republicans decried the choice.
Bad Bunny has repeatedly denounced Mr. Trump’s aggressive immigration policies and used his Grammy Awards speech to condemn the deportation crackdown.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say: ICE out,” he said at the award show Sunday. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem warned last year that ICE would be “all over” the Super Bowl.
Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee at the Department of Homeland Security, also said that ICE agents would be at the upcoming Super Bowl to conduct immigration enforcement.
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else,” he said.
Some conservatives are opting for an alternative halftime show in protest of the NFL’s entertainer selection.
Turning Point USA, the conservative activism organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has plans to host a halftime show with Kid Rock.
The “All American Halftime Show” is promoted as a celebration of “faith, family and freedom,” which also features country artists Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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