ICE’s Super Bowl plan revealed after ominous warning ahead of Seahawks vs. Patriots showdown

ICE agents will not be patrolling around Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, according to new reports.

The Trump administration is expected to send agents from US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) to the Bay Area ahead of the Seahawks’ clash with the Patriots on February 8.

‘Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear,’ an official said earlier this week.

That was one of several ominous warnings from senior allies of President Trump that the immigration crackdown will continue apace as fans head to California. Secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, for instance, previously vowed: ‘We’ll be all over that place’.

But, according to TMZ, there are no plans for ICE to carry out operations at Levi’s Stadium or at NFL-sponsored events in the build up to Super Bowl Sunday. 

The news comes after President Trump promised to ‘de-escalate’ in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. Just two weeks earlier, 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot in her car by an ICE officer.

But DHS told TMZ that their plans to be on the ground around the Super Bowl had not changed despite unrest in Minneapolis. 

Last year, Trump ally Corey Lewandowski warned: ‘There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else.’

He continued: ‘We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility and we will deport you.’ 

Noem even urged people to avoid the Super Bowl ‘unless they are law-abiding Americans who love this country,’ adding: ‘We’ll be all over that place… we’re gonna enforce the law.’ 

Earlier this week, meanwhile, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: ‘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.’

McLaughlin insisted that Super Bowl security would involve a response ‘conducted in-line with the US constitution.’

But there are concerns among local officials that the presence of ICE could ‘increase the level of tension and fear in our area.’ 

Peter Ortiz of the San Jose city council told the San Jose Spotlight: ‘We’re already seeing that they are scared to go out to eat, scared to go to the local corner store, scared to send their kids to school.’

Trump has said he will not attend this year’s Super Bowl, having also slammed the decision to choose Bad Bunny for the halftime show. 

The Puerto Rican artist previously cited ICE agents as a reason he did not include any mainland US dates for his tour.

‘People from the US 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,’ Bad Bunny – real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – told i-D magazine. 

‘But there was the issue that … ICE could be outside (my concert venue). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.’

Back in November, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the decision to give Bad Bunny the halftime show, despite Trump calling it ‘crazy and ‘absolutely ridiculous.’

Lewandowski, meanwhile, said: ‘It’s so shameful they picked someone who seems to hate America.’