Bad Bunny’s long-awaited moment on one of the biggest stages in American entertainment has met with threats.
A couple of days after the announcement that the Puerto Rican rapper will headline the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show, Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security and former campaign manager for Donald Trump, issued a stark warning: ICE agents will be present at the game.
In a Wednesday, October 1, appearance on The Benny Show, Lewandowski confirmed that immigration enforcement will be actively operating at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026.
This came as a veiled threat to Bad Bunny’s largely Latino fanbase that if they would be making an appearance at his Super Bowl Halftime show it could lead to fatal consequences.
"There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally," Lewandowski said bluntly. "Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you."
Though he stopped short of naming Bad Bunny directly, Lewandowski didn’t hold back his disdain for Roc Nation’s decision to place the Monaco singer at the center of the 2026 show.
"It’s so shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much to represent them at the Halftime Show," he said.
The remarks come just three days after it was announced that the Grammy winner would be returning at the Big Game next year, six years after his debut on the Super Bowl stage during Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s headlining show.
The news was particularly attention-grabbing as the rapper had previously decided not to perform in the United States while on tour, a move driven by deep concerns over immigration enforcement targeting his audience.
Back then, the King of Latin Trap made it clear: his choice to skip the U.S. leg of his Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour in 2025–26 wasn’t about hate, it was about protection.
"I’ve performed there many times," he explained at the time. "All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent."
Despite enjoying the Latinos audience who have been living in the U.S the issue of, "ICE could be outside [my concert]," looms large, a risk he wasn’t willing to take, knowing how many of his Latino fans living in the U.S. could be vulnerable.
