Man in Batman Suit Condemns Santa Clara City Council Over ICE

A man donning a Batman suit fiercely confronted the Santa Clara City Council during a joint meeting with city officials and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. During his allotted public comment time, he vehemently opposed the city’s proposed cooperation with ICE ahead of Super Bowl LX, which is slated to be held at Levi’s Stadium on February 8.

“You need to affirm that no city resources will go to ICE, that no cooperation will be given to them,” the man demands. “You need to affirm to the country, to the world, that you are not cowards. Because as of right now, I stand in front of a council of cowards.”

He added: “If you do not act, you’re not just cowards. You are traitors, traitors to each and every individual you serve, to each and every individual that lives in this country, legal or not.”

This local Batman isn’t the only person condemning ICE’s actions. Earlier this week, on February 2, more than 100 people gathered in downtown San Jose to protest against ICE and their possible presence at this year’s Super Bowl. Attending the rally were San Jose Councilmembers Peter Ortiz and Pamela Campos, alongside NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley president Sean Allen, who emphasized ICE’s racialized violence.

“The world will watch the Super Bowl, and the wealth in this city will be built on the bodies of brown and Black people,” Allen remarked at the rally. “You say to Santa Clara, you cannot profit from our culture on Sunday and be complicit while we are hunted like animals on Monday.”

Other South Bay leaders like Rep. Sam Liccardo, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan also underscored their support toward anti-ICE activists. “The American people will not be quiet as ICE agents violate due process and terrorize communities,” Lofgren said.

The Trump administration has consistently threatened to deploy ICE agents to Super Bowl LX. In October, Department of Homeland Security official Corey Lewandowski stated that ICE agents would be conducting immigration enforcement during the game. “There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in the country illegally, not the Super Bowl, not anywhere else,” he said. DHS secretary Kristi Noem echoed the sentiment, claiming that ICE agents would “be all over that place.”

But according to new reporting by ESPN and other news outlets, NFL officials are now “confident” that there will be “no planned ICE enforcement activities” at Levi’s Stadium.

“In the days ahead, there will be a significant increase in federal personnel, including federal law enforcement, across the region. These professionals are here with the specific and strict purpose of directly supporting the Super Bowl-related security plans of the cities of Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Jose,” Jeff Branigan, lead federal coordinator for DHS, said at a press conference on February 3.

“There’s no planned ICE enforcement activities; we are confident of that,” NFL Chief of Security Cathy Lanier said during the conference. “Secondly, our Department of Homeland Security, who’s been our partner for more than 20 years now, is made up of more than 20 different departments.”

Bad Bunny is set to perform during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, provoking outrage within the Trump administration and its officials. “It’s so shameful that [the NFL] decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game,” Lewandowski commented during an interview with right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson. Last fall, Bad Bunny intentionally excluded the U.S. from his 2025-2026 concert tour for fear of ICE raids.

“People from the U.S. could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world,” Bad Bunny told i-D magazine. “But there was the issue that … ICE could be outside [my concert venue]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

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A man dressed in a Batman suit fiercely confronted the Santa Clara City Council last week over its proposed cooperation with ICE during this year’s Super Bowl.

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 50 in 2016. This year’s Super Bowl will also be held at the stadium. (Photo: United States Customs and Border Protection, Public domain)