By Frank Pingue and Max A. Cherney
SAN JOSE, California, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no plans to conduct immigration operations at the Super Bowl, two people familiar with the security arrangements said on Monday.
Security at Sunday’s game in Santa Clara that will see the Seattle Seahawks face off against the New England Patriots is expected to be consistent with past Super Bowls, according to one of the people, who cited an email sent last week from the Bay Area Host Committee to elected officials in the Bay Area.
ICE immigration enforcement is not typically conducted at Super Bowls.
President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have come under scrutiny after the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month by ICE agents, sparking protests across the U.S.
The star of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show will be Puerto Rican rapper and 2026 Grammy winner Bad Bunny, who skipped performing in the continental United States on his recent concert tour, saying he feared federal agents would show up to arrest his fans.
Asked about ICE enforcement operations at the Sunday game, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was working with local, state and federal law enforcement to “make sure it’s a safe environment”.
The “federal government is a big part of that, including this administration and every other administration before that,” he told a press conference on Monday.
In prior years at the Super Bowl, a unit of ICE called Homeland Security Investigations has played a role in security operations, the second source said. This year, HSI is responsible for helping coordinate several federal agencies that are handling security at the event.
The sources were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Around 1 p.m. Pacific Time (2100 GMT) outside the NFL’s Opening Night event in San Jose on Monday, a small crowd of fewer than 100 people staged a protest over ICE’s actions.
Bad Bunny’s inclusion in the halftime show has triggered backlash from right-wing conservative groups, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
On Sunday at the 2026 Grammy awards show, he declared “ICE out” during his acceptance speech.
“We’re not aliens,” he said on stage, after being honored for his album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” with the Best Music Urbana award. “We are humans and we are Americans,” he added.
(Reporting by Max A. Cherney and Frank Pingue in San Jose; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Comments