Despite Assurances, Residents And Officials Prepare For Possible Ice Operations During Super Bowl

This weekend, tens of thousands of group will make their measurement to nan Bay Area metropolis of Santa Clara, fresh to observe a play astatine nan Super Bowl.

Beneath nan jubilant mood, immoderate residents and officials person been grappling pinch nan possibility of ICE enforcement operations during nan game, and taking steps to prepare.

Both Kristi Noem, nan Department of Homeland Security secretary, and her advisor Corey Lewandowski announced in nan fall that agents would behaviour operations during nan nation’s largest sporting event. While Homeland Security Investigations teams that are focused connected preventing quality trafficking and nan waste of counterfeit equipment person agelong worked nan event, migration operations would beryllium unusual.

In nan metropolis of Santa Clara, wherever astir half of residents were calved extracurricular nan US, fearfulness was building arsenic nan crippled approached, said Lisa Gillmor, nan mayor.

People were acrophobic of being targeted simply for having brownish skin, she said: “They’re acrophobic to nonstop their kids to school. There’s fearfulness that possibly they should time off during nan Super Bowl if nan metropolis is going to beryllium inundated pinch ICE agents.”

This week, however, nan NFL, which has agelong collaborated pinch DHS, said location would beryllium “no planned ICE enforcement activities”. “We are assured of that,” said Cathy Lanier, nan league’s main information officer.

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said connected Thursday that his agency had been “assured location will beryllium nary migration enforcement tied to nan game”.

In a connection to nan Guardian past week, nan DHS declined to corroborate reports astir operations astir Levi’s Stadium, penning that nan agency does “not disclose early operations aliases talk personnel”.

“DHS is committed to moving pinch our section and national partners to guarantee nan Super Bowl is safe for everyone involved, arsenic we do pinch each awesome sporting event, including nan World Cup,” said DHS adjunct caput Tricia McLaughlin.

The announcement from nan NFL has brought relief, but residents are still connected edge, said Otto Lee, nan president of nan Santa Clara region committee of supervisors.

“It helps alleviate immoderate fearfulness successful nan community, but astatine nan aforesaid time, we surely request to hole for nan worst,” Lee said.

Officials successful Santa Clara region were already anticipating a demanding twelvemonth up arsenic nan area prepared to big immoderate six World Cup games this summertime and nan Super Bowl.

The threat of an ICE beingness added caller challenges.

As nan Trump administration has implemented its wide deportation schedule and staged fierce operations successful which agents person killed 2 US citizens, siren has dispersed crossed nan US.

Although bluish California has had low ICE apprehension rates, communities location person been readying themselves. Last fall, nan Trump management was expected to deploy much than 100 migration agents to San Francisco, but nan president yet called disconnected nan cognition aft conversations pinch nan city’s politician and tech leaders.

Santa Clara region has a accelerated consequence web that tracks ICE activity and provides verified accusation to residents.

Lee said astatine a caller committee of supervisors gathering that ICE agents don’t person “absolute immunity”, and that section rule enforcement would apprehension anyone who “comes into our region masked, spreading terror, breaking laws aliases threatening our residents”.

Lee and different officials were outraged by nan anticipation of ICE activity astatine nan Super Bowl. The region is focused connected ensuring it will beryllium a safe event, and enforcement activities would bring chaos. ICE activities successful Minnesota created havoc, Lee said, pinch “incompetent chaos [and] trigger-happy gunmen”.

“That genuinely endangers everybody’s lives. And surely does not make our organization safer,” he added.

On Monday, nan US typical Ro Khanna, whose territory includes Santa Clara, and immoderate 21 different members of Congress sent a letter to Noem demanding DHS not deploy migration enforcement personnel.

“This should beryllium a infinitesimal of celebration, unity, and economical opportunity, not a flashpoint for fear, polarization, and violence,” they wrote.

This week, nan Santa Clara metropolis assembly passed an ordinance banning national authorities from utilizing metropolis spot for migration enforcement. Protests are expected extracurricular nan game, and volunteers scheme to patrol adjacent nan stadium astir nan organization looking retired for ICE.

Gillmor hopes that NFL’s announcement will clasp true, and she suspects that it will, fixed that nan management apt doesn’t want to disrupt nan time for able summons holders. If location were an ICE presence, she said, section rule enforcement would not cooperate pinch nan national agents, arsenic authorities rule mandates.

“I’m trying to calm nan waters present to fto them cognize that we person their backmost successful Santa Clara,” she said. “In nan arena [ICE] did come, we’re going to uphold nan rule nary matter what, but they’re not going to get immoderate assistance from us.”

But nan issues spell beyond nan Super Bowl, she said, and worry will surely escalate successful nan coming months arsenic nan organization prepares for nan World Cup and visitors from astir nan world.

“The halfway rumor is ICE and nan measurement that they’ve conducted their operations,” she said. “Fear is astatine a crescendo now, but I deliberation that nan underlying rumor has been building a agelong time. And it’s not going to stop. After this game, it’s going to reappear again nary matter what.”