SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no planned operations at Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday or at any of the Super Bowl-related events in the Bay Area leading up to the game, the NFL’s chief security officer said Tuesday, confirming the details of a memo sent to local officials by the Bay Area Host Committee.
“We are confident of that,” Cathy L. Lanier said during the league’s Super Bowl security and public safety news conference. “Our Department of Homeland Security, who’s been our partner for more than 20 years now and is made up of more than 20 different departments, will send a variety of different agencies. It does not include ICE. There is not ICE deployed with us at the Super Bowl, and I don’t believe there has been in the last several (Super Bowls).”
Lanier also said there are no known specific or credible threats to the Super Bowl or any of its related events.
The Bay Area Host Committee had earlier updated local officials in San Jose, Santa Clara and San Francisco about Super Bowl security plans and ICE’s potential involvement, according to a memo obtained by The Athletic. The committee and Lanier said the federal security presence during this Super Bowl will be in line with that of other major sporting events, such as the Olympics, the World Cup and previous Super Bowls. That will include a presence by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“Our responsibility is to support the security planning of the cities that are responsible for these events, and that is what we are doing,” said Jeffrey M. Brannigan, a federal coordinator special agent for DHS. “There are multiple DHS agencies involved in that effort, including DHS law enforcement, but not exclusive to DHS law enforcement.”
Asked if he would commit to having no ICE enforcement operations at the game, Brannigan deferred to Lanier.
“Everybody has got specific roles that they’re assigned to,” she said. “There’s no ICE agents assigned as a part of our security team here, but everybody is focused on their mission here and (is) already at it as of this morning.”
Lanier added that security planning for the Super Bowl has been 18 months in the making and includes the support of 35 federal, state and local agencies at the game and at related Super Bowl events in the area.
She added that there are temporary flight restrictions throughout the week, around the Super Bowl Experience for fans, and on game day in Santa Clara. The Super Bowl is a no-drone zone, and all flight restrictions will be actively enforced.
The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits all aircraft, including drones, from operating within a three nautical mile radius of any stadium with at least 30,000 seats during regular or postseason NFL games.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California announced that a San Francisco man, Junwei Guo, was charged in a federal criminal complaint for flying a drone within restricted airspace surrounding Levi’s Stadium during the 49ers’ Nov. 9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The complaint alleges that Guo, 27, flew a drone as high as about 2,300 feet above ground level.
Last Friday, members of the host committee had calls with the NFL’s security and events teams as well as federal and local law enforcement. The committee later relayed the plan to local officials.
Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer in late September, drawing criticism from President Donald Trump, who has described it as “absolutely ridiculous” and a “terrible choice” in various interviews.
Top homeland security adviser Corey Lewandowski said on “The Benny Show” in early October that ICE will be at the game, saying it was a “directive from the president.”
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Lewandowski said on the podcast. “We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.”
A day later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there was “no tangible plan” for ICE agents to be at the Super Bowl.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said in a statement to The Athletic on Monday that the group’s “mission remains unchanged” and that DHS “will not disclose future operations or discuss personnel.”
She added: “Super Bowl security will entail a whole of government response conducted in-line with the U.S. Constitution. Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has been openly critical of the ICE raids, telling i-D magazine for a story that was published in September that he decided to leave the U.S. off his tour because of concern about the deportations of Latinos.
Bad Bunny won three Grammy awards on Sunday, including album of the year for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” making him the first Latin artist to win the Recording Academy’s top award.
He won for best música urbána album and best global music performance, and used his acceptance speeches to directly address ICE raids. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said, garnering applause from the crowd. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
He closed with a plea for Americans “to be different.”
“If we fight, we have to do it with love,” he said. “We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there’s a way to do it, with love, and don’t forget that.”
Asked Monday what sort of political statement he expects from Bad Bunny or other Super Bowl performers, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the Grammys reinforced Bad Bunny’s place as “one of the great artists in the world, and that’s one of the reasons we chose him.
“But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together, with their creativity, with their talent,” Goodell said. “And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands it, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”