By Debbie Schlussel

Every year, I write about the tremendous amount of money wasted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)–the Department of Homeland Security’s largest agency–to spend Super Bowl week as the NFL copyright police. And this Super Bowl weekend, this Super Duper Waste is happening again. I’ve written about this repeatedly in the past (including here and here and here). ICE Michigan/Ohio Special Agent in Charge Brian Moskowitz a/k/a “Abu Moskowitz” even wasted tax dollars to make a special NFL ICE Super Bowl pin for the agents performing this important task of keeping us safe from the threat of t-shirts.)





Look, Mom, I’m Keeping America Safe Partying @ the Super Bowl!

As I’ve noted before, ICE agents are paid on your dime to roam the streets of Indianapolis as the private police force for the greedy gazillionaires who own NFL teams. And, as I’ve also noted, they seize goods that are of questionable “copyright violation.” T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing such First Amendment-protected phrases, as “New York Football,” “New England Football,” and “Indianapolis Big Game,” are taken by ICE agents with no legal basis. NFL owners don’t own these words.





But, as I’ve repeatedly noted, ICE agents are given a giant book, put together by NFL Properties and DHS officials–who are supposed to be protecting you, NOT the questionable NFL free speech gestapo. And the book includes many, many phrases, which enjoy neither copyright, trademark, nor service mark protection or rights at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, nor would they in a court of law.

But some poor schnook trying to get by in this tough economy who silk-screened a bunch of sweatshirts and hats, saying “I went to the Indianapolis Big Game,” will be threatened by ICE agents and told that if they don’t pony up the merchandise and close up shop, they will be arrested. Almost universally, the sellers–who do not know their rights and feel intimidated by a badge and gun–hand over the merch and lose a lot of money. NEVER once has ICE caught a single person doing this who was using the money to fund Islamic terrorism. But ICE and Homeland Security–year after year–put out press releases and get eager morons at ESPN and other national and local media, eating up this BS (all while ICE agents look the other way on politically incorrect targets consisting of Muslims in their own communities regularly selling counterfeit merchandise to fund Hezbollah and HAMAS).

Think about it. If these shirts and hats were tied to Islamic terrorism, don’t you think they’d arrest the sellers, do a major investigation, and prosecute them? None has ever been arrested or prosecuted. The entire thing is a joke and a waste of money, not to mention an incredible infringement on free speech rights, commerce, and free enterprise–things we are supposed to hold dear in this country . . . for people other than NFL owners.

Writes one ICE agent I know:

ICE spent a buttload of money and investigative time busting knock-off NFL/Superbowl clothing in Indianapolis in anticipation of the Superbowl. Wow … I’ll sleep better tonight knowing the country is safe from a bogus Pats or Giants jersey instead of investigating, arresting, and deporting criminal aliens and stemming the narcotics/human trafficking.

But, hey, it gets Obama ICE Chief John Moron Morton face time and a free weekend on your dime hob-nobbing with celebrities, attending Super Bowl parties and, even, the Super Bowl itself. And he needs his perks more than the American people need bang for their buck.

Don’t expect to see him or Janet Albert Nobbs-itano at work on Monday. They have hangovers to treat.

And since Moron and Napolitano aren’t letting ICE agents do the jobs they are supposed to–like arresting illegal aliens and deporting them–they need to have something to do . . . like keeping you and me safe from a “Big Game” baseball hat.

Michigan/Ohio ICE SAIC Abu Moskowitz @ Superbowl XL in 2006:

What Me Worry About Illegal Aliens?