Trump’s DHS is on a smear campaign claiming that this year’s Santa Clara Super Bowl will be overrun with "illegal aliens" because of Bad Bunny’s halftime show, even though Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, and therefore an American citizen.
Last weekend’s announcement that global superstar Bad Bunny would be playing our Santa Clara Super Bowl this coming February was of course met by furious tantrums from the MAGA crowd, because Bad Bunny raps and sings mostly in Spanish. And after all, Bad Bunny said last month that he would not include US dates on his concert tour over concerns that ICE agents would gather en masse with the goal of arresting and deporting his fans.
Now that Bad Bunny has his one and only US performance (outside of Puerto Rico) announced for the Super Bowl, that concern seems founded. KGO reports that Trump goon Corey Lewandowski declared on a podcast Wednesday that ICE would be conducting operations at the Super Bowl, whilst he was ranting about how terrible it was that the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was playing the halftime show.
Lewandowski seems to be assuming that many Bay Area Spanish speakers are here illegally and will be attending the Super Bowl in order to see Bad Bunny perform. He also seems not to want to admit that Puerto Ricans are American citizens, as Puerto Rico is a US territory.
“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said Wednesday while appearing 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.”
This podcast was, of course, hosted by the same Benny Johnson who got duped and paid off by the Russians to unwittingly spread pro-Kremlin propaganda in the leadup to the 2024 election.
Also, Super Bowl tickets are typically priced at around $4,000 apiece, even for the cheapest seats in the house. This is not a Home Depot parking lot full of day laborers! There will likely only be very wealthy people at Levi’s Stadium that day. But Lewandowski and the Trump administration’s concerns seem more about bragging and appearing tough, so yes, there will probably be a phalanx of ICE agents at the Super Bowl standing around and doing nothing on your taxpayer dime.
Related:MAGA Hissy Fit Over Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show Should Further Alienate Young and Latino Voters [SFist]
Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 26: Bad Bunny attends Columbia Pictures' "Caught Stealing" New York Premiere at Regal Union Square on August 26, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage)