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The Department of Health Secretary Kristi Noem has weighed in on the NFL’s announcement that Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, and confirmed immigration agents will be there.
Noem told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that ICE “will be all over that place.” Until now, the Trump Administration had not confirmed that ICE would be present at the Super Bowl.
“We are going to enforce the law. You shouldn’t be coming to the Super Bowl unless you are a law-abiding American citizen,” she said.
The White House had also chosen not to comment on the NFL’s decision to have the Puerto Rican artist perform, which Noem does respond to in this interview.
“The NFL sucks and we’ll win,” Noem said. “They are so weak. We will stand for America. They won’t be able to sleep at night. We’ll fix it…”
Bad Bunny surprised many with the announcement that he would be performing at the halftime show. The Puerto Rican popstar, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, told i-D magazine in an interview that the threat of ICE was a factor in his decision not to tour in the continental United States. Instead, the artist held a 31-show residency in Puerto Rico called “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” this summer and is continuing with an international tour in November, starting in the Dominican Republic.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate—I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful,” he said to i-D. “But there was the issue of—like, fucking ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
The Trump administration at first declined to comment on Bad Bunny’s performance announcement. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference on Friday that she wouldn’t “reveal” the president’s thoughts, and that there was “no tangible plan” for ICE to be at the Super Bowl. But Homeland Security advisor Corey Lewandowski threatened ICE’s presence at the major event earlier this week.
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So know that is a very real situation under this administration,” Lewandowski said on a podcast on Wednesday.
Bad Bunny is set to perform at the Super Bowl on February 8 in Santa Clara, California.
