NEED TO KNOW
The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t disclose whether federal immigration agents would be present at the Super Bowl.
After TMZ reported possible ICE presence and enforcement around Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says in a statement to PEOPLE, “DHS is committed to working with our local and federal partners to ensure the Super Bowl is safe for everyone involved, as we do with every major sporting event, including the World Cup.”
“Our mission remains unchanged. We will not disclose future operations or discuss personnel. Super Bowl security will entail a whole of government response conducted in-line with the U.S. Constitution,” McLaughlin tells PEOPLE on Thursday, Jan. 29.
She adds, “Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”
The statement comes amid heightened concerns following the recent shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota. Both were U.S. citizens.
Good, originally from Colorado, was fatally shot in her car on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent after a group of people allegedly started blocking officials during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
McLaughlin claimed at the time that the ICE agent who fired and fatally struck Good was “fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public.”
Three weeks later, on Jan. 24, a U.S. Border Patrol agent officer fatally shot Pretti during “a targeted operation” against “an illegal alien wanted for violent assault,” McLaughlin previously told PEOPLE in a statement.
McLaughlin claimed Pretti, a lawful gun owner, had “approached” officers with a gun and “violently resisted” as they attempted to disarm him.
Witnesses later shared videos that contradicted DHS’s claims about the fatal shooting, including that he was holding a phone, not a gun, when officers pepper-sprayed him and brought him to the ground.
The videos showed he had appeared to have the weapon on his waist removed before the shots were fired.
Groups like the Service, Immigration, Rights and Education Network (SIREN) said uncertainty and chaos keep residents on high alert.
“There are so many agents flying all over the country, we don’t know when something can happen,” Huy Tran, executive director of SIREN, told local FOX affiliate KTVU. “We have the president changing his mind any time he feels like it. Things happen on a whim. That’s why we have to be ready so we don’t have to get ready.”
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ICE agents will be present to support diplomatic security details during the 2026 Winter Olympics, and not run immigration enforcement, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala made it clear that ICE agents are not welcome during the 2026 Winter Games in Italy. The event begins on Feb. 6 in Milan.
“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala said, according to the BBC. “It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”
Corey Lewandowski, a top adviser on Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns who now supports DHS, said in October 2025 that ICE agents will be present during this year’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny’s halftime performance.
“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said on The Benny Show podcast. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you.”
“So know that is a very real situation under this administration, which is contrary to how it used to be,” he added.
