Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, gave the clearest indication yet that agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would attend the Super Bowl in February, where the Latin superstar Bad Bunny is scheduled to headline the halftime show.
Asked on Friday by the right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson if there would be “ICE enforcement” at the Super Bowl, Noem replied, “There will be,” adding that federal immigration officers would be “all over” the event.
“I have the responsibility for making sure everybody goes to the Super Bowl, has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave,” Noem said on “The Benny Show.” People should not attend the event, she went on, unless they are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.”
Bad Bunny, a Grammy-winning musician who was born in Puerto Rico, rose to fame with hits such as “MIA,” “I Like It” and “Me Porto Bonito.” After the N.F.L. announced this week that he would appear at the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, far-right commentators, including Johnson, complained that Bad Bunny did not sing in English and that he had been openly critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Johnson wrote on social media that Bad Bunny was a “massive Trump hater.”
Bad Bunny recently finished a 31-show residency in Puerto Rico. He has been vocal about economic inequality and other social issues affecting his homeland, a U.S. territory, and he has said that he chose not to perform in the continental United States because he feared that his fans would become targets of ICE agents.
“It’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he said.
When Johnson suggested in his interview with Noem that the N.F.L. was sending a message to the Trump administration by choosing Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, Noem replied, “They suck and we’ll win and God will bless us.”
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The post Kristi Noem Says ICE Will Be ‘All Over’ the Super Bowl appeared first on New York Times.
