White House Says There’s No Plan To Have ICE At The Super Bowl After Bad Bunny Announced As Halftime Performer

Everybody can relax now.

The NFL announced last weekend that Puerto Rican rapper and “King of Latin Trap” Bad Bunny would be the headliner for Super Bowl LX in San Francisco, California in February, and naturally there have been strong reactions from both sides.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, announced his 2025 Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour earlier this year, but didn’t include any US dates on the schedule due to President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. At the time, the artist expressed concerns that ICE could target his concertgoers for deportation:

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate—I’ve performed there many times. All of (the shows) have been successful. All of them have been magnificent. I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S. But specifically, for a residency here in Puerto Rico, when we are an unincorporated territory of the United States.

People from the U.S. could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world. But there was the issue of — like, f–king ICE could be outside (my concert). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Obviously people on the right weren’t happy, then, when he was selected as the halftime performer for the Super Bowl. And one Trump advisor even suggested that ICE would be targeting the Super Bowl.

During an appearance on The Benny Show this week, Corey Lewandowski hinted that the administration would have a presence at the Super Bowl due to Bad Bunny’s appearance:

“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.

We will find you. 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.”

Well White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked today about the administration’s plans for the Super Bowl, and seemed to throw cold water on the suggestion that the big game would be a priority for immigration officials:

“As far as ICE being at the Super Bowl, as far as I’m aware there’s no tangible plan for that in store right now. However, of course this administration is always going to arrest and deport illegal immigrants when we find them if they are criminals. We’re going to do the right thing by our country.”

Leavitt wouldn’t say how the president feels about the NFL’s selection, which many see as a political statement and the league’s way of speaking out against Trump’s immigration and deportation policies.

Of course either way, Bad Bunny himself wouldn’t be a candidate for deportation – because as someone from Puerto Rico, he’s an American citizen himself.

But it sounds like anyone who’s going to the Super Bowl for his halftime performance (do people really pay thousands of dollars just to see the halftime show?) won’t have to worry either.The post White House Says There’s No Plan To Have ICE At The Super Bowl After Bad Bunny Announced As Halftime Performer first appeared on Whiskey Riff.