Danny Trejo Defends 'Pawn Shop' Role, Says He Is 'Not Pro-ICE'

Danny Trejo, the "Spy Kids" character actor, issued his first public statement this week over backlash to his starring role in the pro-ICE Daily Wire film "Pawn Shop," declaring he is "not pro-ICE."

"I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community. I am also obviously pro-immigrant. I am not pro-ICE," Trejo told TMZ in remarks published this week.

The film comes from Ben Shapiro's production company, The Daily Wire. Its logline frames a Minneapolis-set thriller: "When a Minneapolis riot forces a young ICE officer to complete a high-stakes arrest alone after his partner is killed, he is hunted through the streets by a furious mob intent on freeing the prisoner and punishing anyone who still upholds the law. Barricaded inside a neighborhood pawn shop with a hard-edged Hispanic veteran and the man's progressive college-age grandson, ordinary men must choose between the rule of law and the chaos that wants to burn it all down in a modern siege of honor and defiance."

What stopped the shoot?

Principal photography halted in Livingston, Montana last Saturday. Local residents complained that the production strained the town's food bank and failed to issue adequate warnings about hazardous stunts. Production resumed Monday. Shapiro called the pause "content discrimination" and "a violation of the First Amendment."

What is Trejo's role?

Trejo plays the veteran pawn-shop owner at the center of the siege. Harvey Keitel co-stars as a fellow veteran hired to work the store, according to credits reported by TMZ.

Trejo told people on set that he took the part because it offered a positive depiction of a Latino veteran. In his TMZ statement, he added: "I know where I come from and I know our struggles. I am an actor. My job is to tell a story." His representative confirmed the quotes and offered no further comment.

Why has the casting drawn protests?

A scene recorded by TMZ appeared to recreate the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good, an incident that has become a national flashpoint over federal immigration enforcement. That visual echo, paired with the logline's sympathetic framing of an ICE officer under siege, sharpened public criticism once the casting circulated.

Production on "Pawn Shop" now moves toward completion under a cloud of casting controversy, location protest and pointed rhetoric from its producer, Shapiro. Both the Montana objections and Trejo's own remarks have pushed the off-screen story as widely as the movie itself, leaving any prospective distributor to weigh whether the controversy translates into reach or into liability. How the finished film clears release without further disruption will go some way to answering whether a politically loud feature can survive its own off-set noise.