Around the middle of Bad Bunny’s live NFL Super Bowl halftime performance, the Puerto Rican singer is seen handing a Grammy Award to a young Latino boy.

As he kneels down and rubs the boy’s head, he says: “Cree siempre en ti” (“always believe in yourself”). Almost immediately, rumors began spreading like wildfire on social media: the boy was none other than Liam Conejo Ramos, an immigrant who has made headlines in recent weeks.

While the concert was rife with symbolism and statement — this happens to not be true. A publicist for Bad Bunny told NPR Music that the little boy on stage was not Liam Conejo Ramos. A representative for the Conejo Ramos family also confirmed to Minnesota Public Radio that it was not the young boy.

Who is Liam Conejo Ramos?

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad, Adrian Conejo, were detained by federal immigration agents on Jan. 20 at their Minneapolis driveway.

A photo taken of the boy carrying a Spider-Man backpack and wearing a blue bunny hat, went viral on social media, and has become one of the symbols of President Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Liam and his dad were sent to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, meant to hold families with minors. They were released earlier this month.

The family, which comes from Ecuador, is claiming asylum. The federal government, however, is pushing to end their asylum claims.

The photo of the 5-year-old in his floppy-eared blue bunny hat being detained by immigration officers became a symbol around which anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota rallied.

Liz Baker/NPR

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The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge in December, deploying nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota. It has led to hundreds of arrests, including of undocumented immigrants without criminal records, and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

A concert filled with symbolism

Bad Bunny’s presence at the Super Bowl has been praised — and criticized — for being a predominantly Spanish-language concert, and because of his stance on Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign. During his acceptance speech at last week’s Grammy Awards, he stated “ICE out… we’re not savage We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans. And we are Americans.”

Sunday’s Super Bowl performance was filled with symbolism and contained several strong statements celebrating Latinos and immigrants in America, including when the singer said “God Bless America” and named all of the countries of North, Central, and South America.

Democrats will stop Donald Trump from trying to steal this year’s midterm elections, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives said on Sunday.

Jeffries’ comments come amid widespread concern after Trump said Republicans should “take over the voting”. The US constitution gives states the power to set election rules and says Congress can pass laws to set requirements for federal elections. The constitution gives the president no authority over how elections are run.

“What Donald Trump wants to do is try and nationalize the election – translation: steal it. And we’re not going to let it happen,” Jeffries said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. He added that Democrats so far had successfully blocked Trump’s efforts to federalize the national guard countered a nationwide push by Republicans to redraw congressional district boundaries to their advantage.

“This is going to be a free and fair election,” Jeffries said. It “is going to be conducted like every other election where states and localities have the ability to administer the laws”.

The Trump administration for months has been sowing doubt about the integrity of this year’s midterm elections by filing lawsuits against states suggesting they are improperly maintaining their voter rolls. The FBI also undertook an unprecedented raid of the election office in Fulton county, Georgia, last month, seizing ballots and other voter information related to the 2020 election. Allegations of fraud have been debunked repeatedly in Fulton county, yet Trump has continued to repeat false claims about the county.

Later in his interview on CNN, Jeffries condemned Trump’s refusal to apologize for a racist post on his Truth Social account depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The White House deleted the post on Friday amid widespread outcry and said a staffer was responsible for posting it.

“He definitively needs to apologize. It was a disgusting video and the president was rightly and appropriately and forcefully denounced by people all across the country,” Jeffries said. “Democrats and even a handful of Republicans who finally showed some backbone in pushing back against the president’s malignant, bottom-feeder-like behavior.”

Senator Adam Schiff of California also said it was clear Trump was trying to interfere in the election and also questioned why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was at the Fulton county raid.

“He fully intends to try to subvert the elections. He will do everything he can to suppress the vote. And if he loses the vote, and I think the Republicans now expect they’ll get a real drubbing in the midterms, he’s prepared to try to take some kind of action to overturn the result. And we really shouldn’t question that,” Schiff said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “I think all of this is intended to send a message. And the message is: ‘We will not tolerate or accept an election that we lose.’”

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the vice-chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, also condemned Gabbard’s presence at the Fulton county raid saying on Sunday he was concerned Trump was trying to interfere in the midterms.

“We have not been informed of any foreign nexus. The job of the director of national intelligence is to be outward facing about foreigners, not about Americans,” he said during an interview on Face The Nation on CBS. “My fear is now [Trump] sees the political winds turning against him, and he’s going to try to interfere in the 2026 election, something a year ago I didn’t think would be possible.”