ICE arrests continued nationwide over Super Bowl weekend as federal agents detained convicted murderers, pedophiles, and rapists despite public criticism and high-profile attacks on the agency. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said agents remained focused on public safety while facing what they described as hostile rhetoric during the nationally televised event.
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that ICE arrests moved forward even as the agency was “demonized” during Super Bowl coverage and surrounding cultural commentary. President Donald Trump and other conservatives criticized the halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, who has repeatedly attacked ICE and its mission.
“While ICE law enforcement officers were demonized at the Super Bowl, our officers were risking their lives to arrest public safety threats from American neighborhoods,” DHS said. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin added, “despite smears from Hollywood, ICE is making our country safer every single day.”
Among those arrested was Mario Rosales-Figueroa, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted of sex with a minor, taken into custody in Visalia, California. In Nevada, ICE arrested Luis Edenilson Ortiz-Lopez, a Salvadoran national convicted of gross lewdness, and Guillermo Arturo Ramirez-Londono, a Colombian national convicted of sexually assaulting a child under 14.
In New York, ICE detained Dominican national Rudy Roa-Fuentes, convicted of murder, and Salvadoran national Anderson Mejia-Bonilla, convicted of rape. Additional arrests occurred across Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi, involving convictions ranging from kidnapping to statutory sodomy.
McLaughlin said 70 percent of ICE arrests involve illegal aliens charged or convicted of crimes and warned that “this heated rhetoric about ICE law enforcement is leading to our officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”
