Key Highlights
- While Homeland Security Investigations teams that are focused on preventing human trafficking and the sale of counterfeit goods have long worked the event, immigration operations would be unusual. In the city of Santa Clara, where nearly half of residents were born outside the US, fear was building as the game approached, said Lisa Gillmor, the mayor. People were afraid of being targeted simply for having brown skin, she said: “They’re afraid to send their kids to school.
- There’s fear that maybe they should leave during the Super Bowl if the city is going to be inundated with ICE agents.”This week, however, the NFL, which has long partnered with DHS, said there would be “no planned ICE enforcement activities”.
- “We are confident of that,” said Cathy Lanier, the league’s chief security officer. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said on Thursday that his office had been “assured there will be no immigration enforcement tied to the game”. In a statement to the Guardian last week, the DHS declined to confirm reports about operations around Levi’s Stadium, writing that the agency does “not disclose future operations or discuss personnel”. ICE agents expected to be deployed for Super Bowl in California, officials sayRead more“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,” said DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. The announcement from the NFL has brought relief, but residents are still on edge, said Otto Lee, the president of the Santa Clara county board of supervisors.“It helps alleviate some fear in the community, but at the same time, we certainly need to prepare for the worst,” Lee said. Officials in Santa Clara county were already anticipating a demanding year ahead as the area prepared to host some six World Cup games this summer and the Super Bowl. The threat of an ICE presence added new challenges.
- As the Trump administration has implemented its mass deportation agenda and staged aggressive operations in which agents have killed two US citizens, alarm has spread across the US. Although northern California has had low ICE arrest rates, communities there have been readying themselves.
- Last fall, the Trump administration was expected to deploy more than 100 immigration agents to San Francisco, but the president ultimately called off the operation after conversations with the city’s mayor and tech leaders.