ICE may be bogged down in controversy for shooting and killing people in Minnesota, but they insist they’re not backing down on previously announced plans to have next weekend’s Santa Clara Super Bowl crawling with ICE agents.
We mentioned earlier today how San Francisco almost had a Minneapolis-style ICE immigration crackdown and invasion of agents, the likes of which has caused the fatal federal-agent shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. SF Mayor Daniel Lurie apparently somehow talked President Trump out of the invasion in October, but the greater Bay Area be back in that pickle.
ICE to conduct immigration enforcement at Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium, official says. pic.twitter.com/jXOLjmsFFA
— Richy (@bettemup1) January 26, 2026
A new report from LA’s KABC confirms that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists that ICE agents will be doing enforcement at the Super Bowl. On top of that, TMZ got a statement out of the DHS detailing their Super Bowl immigration enforcement plans for the Santa Clara Super Bowl that is just 13 days away.
"DHS is committed to working with our local and federal partners to ensure the Super Bowl is safe for everyone involved, as we do with every major sporting event, including the World Cup," DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told TMZ. "Our mission remains unchanged."
Admittedly, ICE has had some presence at the Super Bowl pretty much every year since the agency was born in 2002. But the incredibly dark turn the agency has taken under the Trump 2.0 administration leads many to worry that this Super Bowl operation could be particularly brazen, or even lawbreaking.
This came up previously in October, right when Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime act, and top Trump political operative said ICE would be out in full force. (Incidentally, Trump has bowed out of attending the game, and cited the choice of Bad Bunny as a reason.)
“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said on podcaster Benny Johnson’s show. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility, and deport you. Know that is a very real situation under this administration, which is contrary to how it used to be.”
ICE raids and operations might be a far bigger problem in Santa Clara than in SF. And Santa Clara County has declared “ICE-free zones,” so that's a provocation waiting to happen. But we know San Francisco lives to protest, and that ICE loves a confrontation, so there could be some serious Minneapolis-style ICE trouble brewing before the Super Bowl here in SF as well.
Image: MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - JANUARY 07: Minneapolis Police officers look on as they hold a perimeter around the scene of a shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations on January 07, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to federal officials, the agent, "fearing for his life" killed a woman during a confrontation in south Minneapolis. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
