How serious is the talk about ICE patrolling the Super Bowl over Bad Bunny?
I know more about Bugs Bunny than I do about Bad Bunny. But here’s what I do know: Bad Bunny is a hugely popular rapper from Puerto Rico. He’s not a fan of Donald Trump — surprise, surprise — and will be headlining the Super Bowl halftime show next February in Santa Clara, California.
Bunny tends to attract a large Latino audience. So Kristi Noem, who heads the Department of Homeland Security, came up with what she thought was a great idea. It says it will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the Super Bowl to search for and arrest people (presumably of Latino appearance) who may be in the United States illegally.
Sound crazy? That’s because it is.
Noem was a guest on conservative host Bennie Johnson’s show and pointedly asked her if there would be “ICE enforcement” at the Super Bowl. “He’ll be there,” Noem said without missing a beat. She assured us that ICE agents will be “everywhere” at the event.
And then came the kicking. People should not attend the game unless they are “law-abiding Americans who love this country,” she warned.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager and now one of Noem’s top advisers, also weighed in and offered some tough rhetoric to the podcast audience. “There is no place where you can provide safe haven to people who are here illegally,” he declared. “Not the Super Bowl or anywhere else.”
Then came the line designed to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who had sneaked into this country and had the audacity to buy tickets to watch the big game in person. “We will find you,” he said. “We will arrest you. We will put you in a detention center and we will deport you.”
Say what you will about the immigration debate in this country — and reasonable people may disagree — but if Republicans want to test how quickly they can alienate Latino voters, independents, and perhaps even a significant portion of the NFL fan base, this is how you do it.
Think about it. The biggest sporting event in America — the day on which we put politics and controversy aside every year, scream at our televisions and hope the team we bet on will beat the spread — turned into a federal operation?
Even for Republicans, this is political malpractice.
Sure, the MAGA base might encourage it, but if the GOP wants to expand its tent to include news junkies and conspiracy theorists, maybe — just maybe — it doesn’t turn the Super Bowl into a deportation raid.
Even Bad Bunny, in an interview last month, said he was concerned about ICE’s tactics under Trump. “Like f—ing ICE could be out there [my concert]”And that’s something we’ve been talking about and very concerned about,” he said.
And here we are – proving the man right. maybe.
Because there’s a chance all the Super Bowl ICE talk is just tough talk for Al Qaeda. A little red meat was thrown into the right-wing echo chamber. Because when asked about the supposed plan, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt responded faster than a quarterback facing a blitz. “In terms of having ICE at the Super Bowl, as far as I know, there is no concrete plan in store right now,” she said.
Translation: Even Trump knows this is crazy.
Even Trump, whose brand is based on menacing walls and borders, may realize that sending federal agents into tailgating parties and family sections of Levi’s Stadium is not exactly the way to build a winning coalition in 2026.
So, unless the GOP’s goal is to hand next year’s midterms to Democrats on a silver platter, they may want to rethink the “Super Bowl sweep” fantasy.
But hey, if they keep this up, maybe Bugs Bunny can headline next year’s halftime show. Because after this we’re going to need to laugh.
Bernard GoldbergHe is an Emmy and Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries, and Q&As about his bookSubstack page. Follow him@Bernard Goldberg.
