Border agent recruitment ads turn up outside Super Bowl LX, but was ICE there?
After talk in recent months of ramping up immigration enforcement at the Super Bowl, the federal government backed down in recent weeks. At most, federal agents were a quiet presence near the game Sunday, on-hand for stated security purposes.
But around 2:30 p.m., a van advertising recruitment for U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement drove past DeMarqus Wiggins and his family on Lafayette Street, near Levi’s Stadium.
It was unclear if the van was driven by a representative of the agency or a third-party advertising on its behalf. But to Wiggins, who lives in the Marin area, any suggestion that Border Patrol might be there galled him.
“They shouldn’t be here,” Wiggins said. “This is an event to enjoy sports.”
It wasn’t the only van cruising Lafayette Street advertising U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement. Another van, which bore a Texas license plate, was spotted multiple times on the street later in the afternoon.
“One team. One purpose. One mission,” read the billboards on each van, which included weblinks for people to get more information about how to apply to join the immigrant enforcement agency.
While multiple onlookers claimed that they saw Border Patrol agents near the Super Bowl, those claims were not confirmed. An email seeking comment sent Sunday to a media relations address for U.S. Customs and Border Protection drew an automated response saying that emails are reviewed Monday through Friday.
On Tuesday, two days after initial publication online of this story, a spokesperson for CBP shared a blog post on the agency’s activities at the Super Bowl. David Salazar, who coordinated CBP’s field work at the Super Bowl, said in the post that the agency was “largely behind the scenes” and focused on public safety.
Observers for the Rapid Response Network of Santa Clara County didn’t report any federal agents doing immigration enforcement near the Super Bowl, according to Huy Tran, executive director of an affiliated group, Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network, or SIREN.
Tran said that to his understanding, some federal officers might have been on-hand for security purposes. The San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this week that federal agents have been in San Francisco this week to assist with public safety.
In a phone interview around 5 p.m. Sunday, Tran indicated that he wasn’t relaxing just yet.
“We’re still very much on alert and we still have our folks who are going to be out there for the rest of the day,” Tran said.
Other federal agencies did have a presence near Lafayette Street. One man identified himself as a member of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and then declined to be interviewed. There were also multiple FBI representatives along the street, though none of them were available for an interview.
‘People were right to be concerned’
The game was played in Santa Clara, though the stadium is near San Jose city limits. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a phone interview on Sunday with The Sacramento Bee that “we got indications a few weeks out” that no plans existed for a surge in immigration enforcement at the Super Bowl.
Still, he sympathized with anxieties members of the public might have been feeling.
“People were right to be concerned,” Mahan said. “The administration’s communications and actions have obviously been far from consistent.”
The game occurred amidst the backdrop of recent high-profile killings by immigration officers in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The Super Bowl halftime show was also set to be headlined by recording artist Bad Bunny, who spoke out against ICE at the recent Grammy Awards.
Mahan said that while there had been “episodic” federal immigration enforcement in San Jose “for decades,” there hadn’t been a substantial increase in enforcement associated with the Super Bowl. The mayor said this decision by the federal government was absolutely a win for his city or Santa Clara County.
He referred to San Jose as America’s “safest big city”
“I think we’ve shown that we can keep people safe and we know how to do law enforcement effectively,” Mahan said. “I think the federal government’s decision makes us all safer.”
Mahan, who recently announced that he is running for governor of California and had an ad promoting his candidacy air during the game, added that he saw a lesson that didn’t just apply to the Super Bowl.
“In the months and years ahead, as we think about the role of law enforcement domestically, it’s important to look at the cities that are getting it right, like San Jose and reflect on why that is,” Mahan said.
While Super Bowl attendees didn’t see ICE enforcement at the Super Bowl, ICE protesters were on hand. They passed out “ICE out” towels before the start of the game that people presumably could wave in the stands at Levi’s Stadium.
This story was originally published February 8, 2026 at 8:53 PM.
