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“Those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear,” the DHS said.
The Super Bowl. The biggest single-day sporting event in the world.
Hundreds of millions of people will be tuning in when the Seattle Seahawks face the New England Patriots in a battle for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
But with everything going on in the U.S. at the moment, topics other than just sports are taking the spotlight.
ICE has been deployed in cities all over the U.S., and since the shooting of two American citizens in Minnesota, protests and unrest have grown across the nation, as The Guardian reported last week.
This leaves the question: Will ICE be looking for undocumented immigrants at the Super Bowl?
Some media outlets say no; others say yes.
What did DHS say?
According to The Washington Post, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement:
“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.”
She added that DHS will not disclose future operations but stated that the Super Bowl security detail 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,” the statement ended.
Host: “No enforcement planned”
The Super Bowl host committee wrote a memo, seen by The Post, stating that there are no planned ICE immigration enforcement operations associated with Super Bowl LX (60).
DHS itself has not publicly confirmed whether immigration enforcement actions will take place, leaving media outlets to interpret its comments differently.
An anonymous source told Reuters, that a unit of ICE called Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has been involved in security operations at previous Super Bowls. At Super Bowl LX, HSI will help coordinate security handling of several federal agencies at the event.
ICE immigration enforcement is not typically conducted at Super Bowls, according to Reuters.
What does this mean?
The Post interprets these statements as meaning no ICE enforcement is being planned for the Super Bowl, using the headline: “ICE not planning immigration enforcement operations at Super Bowl.”
However, Fox News has published an article titled: “ICE agents will conduct enforcement operations at Super Bowl LX, official says.”
The Washington Post and Fox News drew sharply different conclusions from DHS’s comments, emphasizing different aspects of ICE’s expected role at the Super Bowl.
In October, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that ICE will be at the Super Bowl, but it is unclear, if she was talking about security presence or immigration enforcement.
Sources: The Washington Post, Fox News, X formerly Twitter, Reuters, The Guardian
