By Adriana Tamayo
Correspondent
Hispanic immigrants in this country never had it easy. With U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the things people say about hispanic immigrants on social media and in the news, it created waves of more and more people spreading anti-Latino rhetoric. Even though it's nothing new, President Donald Trump's administration has made it increasingly harder to ignore.
In January 2025, Trump took office for his second, non-consecutive term as president. One of the big policies that he ran on during his campaign in 2024 was a huge crackdown on undocumented immigrants which involved the expulsion of thousands of immigrants. In August of 2025, ICE had deported around 200,000immigrants and by September, the administration claimed that a total of 2 million immigrants had left the country through deportation by ICE and self-deportation.
On Sept. 9, the Supreme Court made a decision that made it legal for ICE agents to racially profile people during their raids — meaning that ICE agents are legally allowed to stop any person based on how they may look, what language they speak and detain them without knowing whether they are undocumented or not. Previously, decisions had been made by lower courts — such as the Los Angeles federal court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — that this was considered illegal racial profiling but the Supreme Court was able to overturn those rulings.
This ruling is very dangerous for the Latino community as it gives ICE and border patrol the green light to stop anyone that they guess might be in the country illegally. This gives room for error, seeing as they could stop someone who is a U.S. citizen or is in the country legally. Because this is allowed to happen, Latinos have been on high alert and have been afraid to leave their homes in fear that they will be stopped by ICE and/or detained by them.
The tactics ICE has used to round up undocumented immigrants are inhumane as well. Videos have surfaced of ICE agents tackling people, smashing car windows and even using tear gas.
Trump himself is continuously perpetuating the stereotype that undocumented, usually hispanic immigrants, are dangerous criminals. Even though he was told that these people were just trying to do their jobs and make a living.
Anti-Latino sentiment has also made its way into pop culture. On Sept. 28, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was revealed to be headlining the halftime show for Super Bowl LX. Bad Bunny was named Spotify's No. 1 most-streamed artist globally for 2025 which shows that the artist headlining the Super Bowl makes perfect sense.
However, conservatives had different opinions. After the announcement, people on the right took to social media to display their concern for the halftime show. Many were upset by the fact that Bad Bunny has no songs in English meaning that the show will be completely in Spanish. They also spoke about the fact that Bad Bunny is very vocal about his resentment of the ICE raids and the Trump Administration as a whole.
With all of this backlash, the right had no choice but to boycott this halftime show. Turning Point USA, a non-profit conservation organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has taken matters into their own hands to put on the “All-American Halftime Show” in retaliation to the actual halftime show. They announced this show on social media with a link to the website.
The irony of the “All-American Halftime Show” is the fact that Bad Bunny technically has American citizenship as he was born and raised in Puerto Rico which is, after all, an American territory. People seem to be mostly upset by the fact that he will be speaking a language that many of them don’t understand and seem to be offended by.
The 2025 ICE raids didn’t only bring about an increase in deportations but it also brought about division between families, friends, and the country as a whole. The administration made the Latino identity seem like something foreign or “un-American” and made it something that people should be afraid of rather than something that we should all be proud of.
