Bay Area Residents Fight Back Super Bowl Immigration Crackdown Fears

SAN JOSÉ —  Activists and neighbors are on high alert and preparing for a possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deployment and confrontations during Super Bowl LX week.  

In California’s Bay Area, which is hosting the game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, community organizers planned to send legal observers to document immigration operations at the stadium and will host an anti-ICE demonstration during game time.  

After months of mixed messaging by the Trump administration, the NFL said this week that Super Bowl LX will not have a large ICE presence. 

“There’s no planned ICE enforcement activities., We are confident of that,” NFL security chief Cathy Lanier said at a Tuesday press conference.

Nevertheless, a weeklong agenda of anti-ICE Super Bowl demonstrations is moving ahead as planned. It’s not only Bay Area Latinos who are organizing and showing up — it’s activists, neighbors, and allies from all backgrounds. The series of events, dubbed “No ICE on our home turf,” kicked off Monday, February 2, the same day official NFL Super Bowl events began. Fans waiting outside the San José Convention Center in Seahawks and Patriots jerseys could see the rally unfold in full view across the street.  

“We want them to know we’re here,” said Raj Jayadev, an organizer of the rally and co-founder of San José advocacy organization Silicon Valley De-bug. “These are our streets.” 

Dozens of protesters marched right by Super Bowl experience attendees carrying a banner that read “ICE out of the Bay” and yelling “Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!” A few activists held signs using sports puns, including one that said, “No more fouls on our community,” while others exhibited names of those killed by ICE: “Keith Porter, Renée Good, Alex Pretti, HUNDREDS MORE.” Several signs and chants were in Spanish as well. 

Mary Vernooy, 52, flashed her sign that read “Super Bowl, not Super Brawl.” Vernooy lives two miles from Levi’s Stadium and believes ICE's presence at the game would heighten tensions among the immigrant community and neighbors, especially after the killings of Good and Pretti in Minneapolis. 

“It's really upsetting and unsettling for the immigrant community we have. I can speak of many friends who themselves are American-born, but their parents are not citizens, and they're really scared. Their freedoms are being encroached on because of the looming threat of ICE,” Vernooy said, adding that many are scared to leave their homes. “It's a world-class event. Why are [ICE] needed at the Super Bowl?”

Since last fall, the Super Bowl has emerged as a stand-in for current national tensions regarding the Trump administration’s hardline immigration crackdown. In September, conservatives criticized the NFL’s decision to name global megastar Bad Bunny the halftime show headliner. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the NFL "won't be able to sleep at night” over its decision, and conservative group Turning Point USA announced its own “All-American” Halftime Show to compete with the official performance. 

Bad Bunny himself has publicly denounced federal immigration operatives and said in an interview that part of this decision not to extend his world tour to the U.S. is because of concerns for ICE raids. At the 68th Grammy Awards this past Sunday — where Bad Bunny took home three awards, including Album of the Year — he reiterated his stance against immigration enforcement.

“Before I say thanks to God, I want to say, ICE out,” Bad Bunny said during his Best Música Urbana Album acceptance speech. 

Last October, Corey Lewandowski, top aide to Noem, also suggested on a podcast that immigration enforcement raids could occur at the Super Bowl. “There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else. We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So know that that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to how it used to be.”

In response, Bay Area immigration advocates ramped up their services. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2023, the Bay Area was home to more than 300,000 unauthorized immigrants. Santa Clara County accounted for more than a third of the total, with 119,000 unauthorized immigrants, and more than half were from Mexico.

The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network has been training people to be legal observers for more than a year, in which volunteers report, verify, and document immigration enforcement operations. Recently, the network sought to recruit more volunteers to be present at the Super Bowl amid fears of a crackdown. So far, hundreds of volunteers have been trained to legally observe in recent weeks, according to the network. 

Zarah Vidriezca and her mom attended a training session one week before game day. 

“I think it is important to know how we can protect our neighbors and communities,” Vidriezca said. “We are not powerless.”

The network refused to name the exact number of volunteers planning to patrol on Super Bowl Sunday and their route for security reasons. However, volunteers would be in the surrounding area and inside Levi’s Stadium, the network confirmed last week.

During game time, Vidriezca will be at an anti-ICE Super Bowl protest in Santa Clara. 

Yesenia Campos, a legal observer, decided against observing during the Super Bowl due to immigration agents’ “unpredictable” actions, especially after events in Minneapolis. Campos is pregnant and had been detained once while observing immigration enforcement in San José. 

“I think we've seen [unpredictable actions] here clearly in the Bay Area, but we've also seen it with what's happened in Minnesota,” Campos said. “So I personally just don't feel safe putting myself in that situation because of my current condition.”

Another San José-based community and immigration organization, Latinos United for a New America, has been operating a hotline where residents can report ICE encounters and receive help in real time. The week before the Super Bowl, a group of volunteers visited local businesses to let them know about immigration resources. 

San José Councilmember Peter Ortiz noted at Monday’s rally that the city has an emergency operations center and a five-point plan that will be activated “if ICE is there at the site.” 

“We are not asleep at the wheel,” Ortiz said. 

Meanwhile, locals have initiated their own acts of colorful protest, including pasting “Chinga la Migra” posters in San Francisco that pay homage to Bad Bunny, and a passionate speech from a San José activist dressed as Batman denouncing ICE's presence at the Super Bowl.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of if ICE will come to our neighborhoods. It’s a matter of when,” Vidriezca said. “We are staying alert before, during, and after [the Super Bowl], as we also believe that there will be an aftermath.” 

Annika Hom is an award-winning freelance journalist who covers the United States and Mexico. Her work ranges from science to immigration to housing, and her bylines can be found in outlets such as National Geographic, WIRED, and Mission Local. 

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Benito’s Moment: Still not over the way Bad Bunny took a pause for himself to process his historic Album of the Year win at the GRAMMYs this Sunday? Political content creator Brian Baez sums up the heaviness of the moment beautifully and passionately: “That’s generations of being told ‘you’re not enough, your language doesn’t matter, your island doesn’t matter.’”

This Thursday, Brian will discuss the deeper meaning of Benito Bowl with Brittany Packett Cuningham. You can RSVP and join on Zoom here.

Chefs React to ICE: Fellow editor Serena Maria Daniels of The Latino Newsletter filed a story for Bon Appétit this week about how award-winning Indigenous chef Sean Sherman mobilized a call for Congressional action against ICE.

A Minneapolis Update: From NPR, “Tom Homan, the White House's border czar, said in a press conference Thursday the federal government is working on a plan to reduce the number of federal immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota.”

Nuria Net edited and published this edition of The Latino Newsletter.

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