(AFP) – US authorities could conduct immigration sweeps at next year’s Super Bowl, a Trump administration official has warned, following the announcement that Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny will headline the halftime show.
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” said Corey Lewandowski, an advisor to Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem. “We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you,” he added in a podcast Wednesday with conservative influencer Benny Johnson.
President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown after returning to power in January, vowing to deport millions of undocumented people living in the US. Bad Bunny recently said his worldwide tour was skipping the United States over fears that immigration officials would target his concerts.
“If there are illegal aliens, I don’t care if it’s a concert for Johnny Smith or Bad Bunny or anybody else, we’re going to do enforcement everywhere, because we’re going to make Americans safe,” said Lewandowski.
Like many other Trump officials, Lewandowski criticized the NFL as “woke” for choosing Bad Bunny to headline the halftime show of the American football showpiece next February — with the performance routinely drawing audiences of more than 100 million viewers.
“It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much,” he said. Super Bowl halftime shows have traditionally attracted the biggest names in music, with past performers including Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, and Madonna.
Trump’s loyal Make America Great Again movement is particularly furious about Bad Bunny’s selection for 2026 given that he almost exclusively performs in Spanish. Bad Bunny is also out of favor as he supported Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
© 2024 AFP
