WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said NFL officials won’t be “able to sleep at night” after picking Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny — who didn’t host US concerts this year in protest of President Trump’s immigration policies — to headline the Super Bowl halftime show in 2026.
Noem revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be present at the NFL championship game’s performance, challenging the record producer for refusing to appear before American audiences if it led to deportations.
“They suck, and we’ll win, and God will bless us, and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day,” Noem told conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Friday. “They won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe, and they’re so weak, we’ll fix it.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for keeping it safe,” she added of the event set to take place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., “so I have the responsibility for making sure everybody goes to the Super Bowl, has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave, and that’s what America is about.”
“We’re going to enforce the law,” the DHS chief also said. “So I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless there are law-abiding Americans who love this country.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said earlier Friday that there was “no tangible plan” for ICE to be deployed at the Super Bowl.
“As far as ICE being at the Super Bowl, as far as I’m aware there’s no tangible plan for that in store right now,” Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing.
“However, of course this administration is always going to arrest and deport illegal immigrants when we find them if they are criminals. We’re going to do the right thing by our country.”
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, told i-D magazine in a Sept. 10 interview that he was concerned about Trump administration-led deportations targeting Latinos at his concerts.
“I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the US,” he said.
“But there was the issue of — like, f–king ICE could be outside [my concert],” the rapper added. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
