Will ICE Show Up at the Super Bowl -- Or Is it Just Red Meat for MAGA?

Kristi Noem talks tough -- but Donald Trump will have the final say.

Editor’s Note: This is a more detailed and updated version of a recent Off the Cuff.

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I know more about Bugs Bunny than I will ever know about Bad Bunny. But here’s what I do know: Bad Bunny is a wildly popular rapper from Puerto Rico. He’s no fan of Donald Trump — surprise, surprise — and he’ll be headlining the Super Bowl halftime show next February in Santa Clara, Calif.

Mr. Bunny tends to attract a big Latin crowd. So Kristi Noem, who heads up Homeland Security, has come up with what she seems to think is a great idea. She says she’s going to send Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents to the Super Bowl to look for and arrest (presumably Latino-looking) people who might be in the U.S. illegally.

Sound insane? That’s because it is.

Noem was a guest on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson’s show and he asked her point-blank whether there would be “ICE enforcement” at the Super Bowl. Without missing a beat, Noem said, “There will be.” ICE agents, she assured us, would be “all over” the event.

And then came the kicker. “People should not attend the game,” she warned, unless they are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.”

Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager and one of Noem’s top advisors now, also weighed in, flexing some tough-guy rhetoric for the podcast audience. “There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are here illegally,” he said. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”

Then came the line designed to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who snuck into this country and had the audacity to buy tickets to watch the big game in person. “We will find you,” he said. “We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.”

Say what you will about the immigration debate in this country — and reasonable people can disagree — but if Republicans want to test just how fast they can alienate Latino voters, independents, and maybe even a chunk of the NFL fan base, this is how you do it.

Think about it. America’s biggest sporting event — the one day each year when we set politics and controversy aside and shout at our TVs and hope the team we bet on beats the spread — turned into a federal sting operation?

Even for Republicans, this is political malpractice.

Sure, the MAGA base may cheer it on, but if the Republicans Party wants to expand its tent beyond cable news addicts and conspiracy theorists, then maybe — just maybe — don’t turn the Super Bowl into a deportation raid.

Even Bad Bunny, in an interview last month, said he was worried about Trump-era ICE tactics. “Like f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert],” he said. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

And here we are — proving the man right. Maybe.

Because there’s a chance all this Super Bowl ICE talk was just tough talk for the base. A little red meat tossed into the right-wing echo chamber. Because when asked about the supposed plan, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked it back faster than a quarterback facing a blitz. “As far as ICE being at the Super Bowl, as far as I’m aware, there’s no tangible plan in store right now,” she said.

Translation: Even Trump knows this is nuts.

Even Trump, whose brand runs on bluster and border walls, probably realizes that sending federal agents to tailgate parties and family sections at Levi’s Stadium is not exactly how you build a winning coalition in 2026.

So unless the Republican Party’s goal is to hand next year’s midterm elections to the Democrats on a silver platter, they might want to rethink this “Super Bowl ICE sweep” fantasy.

But hey — if they do go through with it, maybe Bugs Bunny can headline the halftime show next year. Because after this, we’re going to need a laugh.