Federal immigration agents may be present at February‘s Super Bowl, where Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny will perform at halftime, according to a top Trump administration advisor.
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Department of Homeland advisor Corey Lewandowski said during an interview aired Wednesday with Benny Johnson’s The Benny Show.
“We will find you,” he continued. “We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So know that that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to what how it used to be.”
The Independent has contacted the NFL for comment.
“There is no safe haven for violent criminal illegal aliens in the United States,” a DHS spokesperson told The Independent when asked if immigration agents would be at the game.
The comments came as Lewandowski was discussing the selection of Bad Bunny to play the halftime show during the bowl match-up, set to take place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
During a recent interview with i-D magazine, the artist, one of the most popular singers in the world, said one reason he avoided U.S. stops on a recent world tour was out of fear his fan base would be targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate—I’ve performed there many times,” said, adding, “But there was the issue of—like, f***ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
At the time of Bad Bunny’s comments, Homeland Security officials dismissed the notion of immigration agents showing up at a concert in the U.S.
“Bad Bunny is either seriously misinformed about ICE operations or is using law enforcement as an excuse because he won’t be able to sell tickets in the United States,” a DHS official told NPR. “ICE is not raiding concert venues. Pop stars choosing to fearmonger and demonize ICE law enforcement are contributing to the nearly 1,000% increase in assaults on ICE officers.”
Outside of the immigration comments, some on the right have taken issue with Bad Bunny’s selection as the half-time performer, pointing to his past criticisms of Donald Trump, his mostly Spanish-language songs, and his choice to defy gender norms through fashion.
Johnson, in previous comments, called Bad Bunny a “Massive Trump hater” and an “anti-ICE activist,” whose selection showed the NFL was “self-destructing.”
Meanwhile, Robbie Starbuck of the conservative Heritage Foundation accused the NFL of “pushing left-wing social issues.”
“Is it that hard to pick a unifying music act who doesn’t want to peddle woke propaganda? Does this guy really scream American football to anyone? Be for real with me,” Starbuck said. “No one thinks he does. This isn’t about music, it’s about putting a guy on stage who hates Trump and MAGA.”
