Three pro-ICE messages displaying on a digital billboard in San Francisco ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl are reportedly “raising eyebrows and making some people angry.”
In one of the city’s most popular tourist area, Fisherman’s Wharf, a billboard featuring rotating messages now includes three employing football metaphors to stress the importance of the job being done by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Defensive player of the year: ICE,” one message states, displaying an image of a football player holding a trophy.
“Cheering because the home team finally started investing in DEFENSE,” declares another (text only) message.
“They can’t win without defense,” the third says, with an image of football players on the left half of the screen and “Neither can America” on the right half, displaying an image of ICE agents.
“Our mission is to strengthen border security, end trafficking and cartel exploitation, and close loopholes that reward unlawful entry,” explains American Sovereignty, the sponsor of the billboard messages, in its newly-created X.com account.
“NEW: We are saluting the brave Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who work every day in defense of America with billboards and ads in San Francisco for #SuperBowlLX,” the group announced in a January 30 post, adding “Thank you, @ICEgov, for defending our country.”
The messages supporting the federal law enforcement agents have sparked “outrage” and an “outcry” from those who oppose ICE’s enforcement of federal immigration laws, as The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
“Roberto Hernandez, a longtime organizer in the Mission District, called the billboard ‘sickening.’ He said the Latino Task Force, which he co-founded, and other immigrant rights advocates were reaching out to city officials to urge them to take the billboard down.”
The billboard messages are “raising eyebrows and making some people angry,” NBC’s local Bay Area affiliate reported, also interviewing those who deemed the messages “sickening.”
“No one in San Francisco – visitor or local – will believe these pathetic billboards,” San Francisco Supervisor Danny Sauter said in a statement.
ABC’s local affiliate aired an interview with a “Patriot’s fan” who said the pro-immigration enforcement messages “made me sick to my stomach.”
While the segment gave voice to those who called it wrong to display pro-ICE messages during Super Bowl Week, it also touted activists who are using the event to promote their pro-illegal immigration messages.
“We have a week of action, during the Super Bowl. And the point of this week of action is to send a message, not only to Kristi Noem, that she is not welcome here, that ICE is not welcome in this community,” Silicon Valley Rising Action’s Organizing Director Joao Paulo Connolly told ABC7 News.
The local CW news, KRON 4, appears to have provided the most straightforward coverage of the billboards, embedded below.
