Danny Trejo Says He's Not Pro-ICE as Daily Wire Wraps Its ICE Movie

The actor, cast in Ben Shapiro's 'Pawn Shop,' called himself 'a proud Mexican' as the film finished shooting in Montana.

Danny Trejo wants one thing understood about the Ben Shapiro movie he just shot in Montana: "I am not pro ice."

The Los Angeles-raised, Mexican-American actor responded Friday to the backlash over his role in "Pawn Shop" with a statement he posted on social media, Deadline reported, and also gave to TMZ. "I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community," he wrote. "I am also obviously, pro immigrant."

The movie comes from Shapiro's Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier's Bonfire Legend. TMZ reported that Shapiro has said it's pro-ICE, which is why some of Trejo's fans have wondered why he took the part.

The timing didn't help. On the same Friday, the Daily Wire announced it had wrapped production in Livingston, Montana. By Friday night, Trejo's name was the third-biggest search trend in the U.S. on Google Trends.

The studio's official synopsis, as Deadline published it, follows a young federal agent stranded in chaotic Minneapolis after his partner is badly hurt. He hides in a pawn shop with "a traditional Hispanic father and his progressive college-age son." The Daily Wire's own wrap story describes the agent more bluntly, as an ICE officer.

TMZ, citing people connected to the production, reported that Trejo plays the shop's owner, a military veteran whose family has run the place for generations. Harvey Keitel plays a struggling fellow veteran he hires as a security guard. According to a production source quoted by TMZ, Trejo told people on set that the role drew him because it showed a Latino character and a veteran in a good light.

The fight in Livingston was over more than casting. Locals protested the production, and its opening scene appears to dramatize the fatal ICE shooting of Renée Good in Minnesota in January, Deadline reported. TMZ had earlier obtained video from the set that appeared to show the scene being filmed.

The city briefly suspended the shoot, then let it resume under a revised permit. Deadline reported the permit required the crew to keep locals' access to the Livingston Food Resource Center open, shield the public from violent scenes and noise, and keep private security from policing residents on public streets. The Daily Wire said that meant black fabric screens around any "violent activity."

Shapiro didn't take it quietly. On his podcast, he called the city's move politics and "content discrimination" that he said violated the First Amendment, according to the Daily Wire.

Trejo's statement ended with a different reading of the job. "I know where I come from and I know our struggles," he wrote. "I am an actor. My job is to tell a story."

Sonnier, the film's lead producer, sounded happy with the story they told. "Pawn Shop is the movie we set out to make," he said in the Daily Wire's wrap announcement. The last shot, he added, was of a Jeep getting blown to pieces.

Source: Deadline, retrieved October 10, 2026. Other sources: tmz.com, dailywire.com.