Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance included a brief moment in which a young child appeared on camera, leading some social media users to claim the child was Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old who had been detained by immigration officials in Minnesota. AP’s fact check found those identifications were wrong and that the child in the broadcast was instead Lincoln Fox Ramadan, a child actor from California. The posts drew outrage amid attention to immigration enforcement, but the underlying identification, AP reported, did not match the detained child in question.
AP said the claim being spread was that “Bad Bunny handed his Grammy to Liam Conejo Ramos” during the halftime show. AP reported that this was false, and that the boy shown was Lincoln Fox Ramadan. After Bad Bunny finished his song “NUEVAYoL,” cameras showed Lincoln watching as the artist walked over and handed him what appeared to be a Grammy, according to AP’s description of the broadcast.
AP reported that Lincoln Fox Ramadan’s Instagram profile described the appearance and linked it to the moment on Sunday. In a Monday post on Lincoln’s Instagram, the child actor’s caption said: “An emotional, unforgettable day being cast as the young Benito — a symbolic moment where the future hands the past a Grammy.” AP reported the caption also included photos from Lincoln’s appearance during the halftime show and other moments from the day, and a childhood photo of Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.
AP said Lincoln’s Instagram caption also stated that he was “sending love to Liam Ramos” and that “we all deserve peace and love in America, a country built by and home to so many hard-working immigrants.” AP also reported that another post from Lincoln’s Instagram, shared on Sunday, included a video of his cameo and used the caption: “I’ll remember this day forever! @badbunnypr - it was my truest honor.” AP added that Lincoln’s final post before the Super Bowl, on Jan. 31, showed a photo of himself with the caption: “I booked a cool gig! Can’t wait to share it with you guys.”
AP further reported that Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained by immigration officers in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20. AP said they were taken to an ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas, but returned to Minneapolis on Feb. 1 after a judge’s order. AP reported that images of immigration officers surrounding a young boy in a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack helped fuel outrage about immigration enforcement in Minneapolis.
Columbia Heights Public Schools, the school district for Liam Conejo Ramos, confirmed to AP that Liam was not the boy in Bad Bunny’s halftime show. AP quoted a statement from Kristen Stuenkel, a Columbia Heights Public Schools spokesperson, saying: “(Superintendent Zena) Stenvik has indicated that the child is not Liam. Liam and his family are sequestered during this time,” CHPS spokesperson Kristen Stuenkel said in a statement Monday.
AP said Lincoln Fox Ramadan is a child actor from Costa Mesa, California, and that his Instagram and acting profile identify him as half Egyptian and half Argentine. AP reported that his previous work includes modeling for Walmart and Target. AP also reported that Bad Bunny has won six total Grammys, including three at the 2026 awards show, and that his album of the year win for “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” was the first time a Spanish-language album won the top prize at the Grammys.
In its fact-check, AP said representatives for Bad Bunny did not respond to a request for comment. The AP report concluded that while social media users linked the boy in the halftime broadcast to the detained 5-year-old, the evidence they pointed to did not support that identification.