Super Bowl halftime show child was identified as actor, not Minneapolis 5-year-old in ICE detention

What viewers saw during the Super Bowl broadcast

A moment late in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime performance quickly spread across social media: the artist handed a Grammy trophy to a young boy on stage. Within hours, some posts asserted the child was the 5-year-old Minneapolis-area boy whose detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in January drew widespread attention.

That identification was incorrect. The child who appeared in the halftime show was Lincoln Fox Ramadan, a 5-year-old child actor and model based in Costa Mesa, California. After the broadcast, the child and his representatives publicly confirmed his identity, addressing the confusion that followed the nationally televised performance.

Why the claim gained traction

The misidentification took hold in part because the Minnesota case had become highly visible, fueled by images released from the January 20 encounter showing a small child outside a home in a blue winter hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack while immigration officers were present. The similarity in age between the child in that case and the child on the Super Bowl stage further contributed to the viral assumption.

The halftime-show moment also carried symbolism that viewers interpreted through the lens of current immigration enforcement debates. However, there has been no verified indication that the child on stage was connected to the Minnesota detention or that the halftime-show production was intended as a direct reference to that specific case.

The Minneapolis-area detention that sparked national attention

The 5-year-old at the center of the Minnesota incident is Liam Conejo Ramos. He and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained by ICE on January 20, 2026, in Columbia Heights, a suburb of Minneapolis. They were later taken to a detention facility in Texas.

A dispute remains over key details of how the January 20 encounter unfolded. Local school officials alleged the child was used to prompt someone inside the home to open the door. Federal officials disputed that characterization, stating the father fled and left the child alone in a running vehicle, and that officers remained with the child for safety while the arrest proceeded.

• January 20, 2026: Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were detained in the Minneapolis area and transported to Texas.
• February 1, 2026: Following a judge’s order, the father and son were released and returned to Minnesota.

What is verified now

Two separate facts are now clear: the child featured in the Super Bowl halftime show was a professional child performer from California, and the 5-year-old detained in the Minneapolis area is a different child involved in an ongoing immigration case. The episode underscores how quickly emotionally charged claims can spread during live events—and how rapidly those claims can become detached from verified identities and timelines.

If you have a news tip related to the Minneapolis-area immigration case or its community impact, contact the minneapolis.news newsroom.