John Leguizamo brands Superman actor Dean Cain a ‘moron’ over ICE announcement

Hollywood star John Leguizamo has branded Dean Cain a “moron” after the former Superman actor announced that he was going to become an immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

Cain – who starred as the Man of Steel in the ABC TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman between 1993 to 1997 – said this week that he was supporting President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Responding to Cain’s announcement, the Emmy and Tony award-winning Leguizamo – known for roles in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, The Lincoln Lawyer and John Wick – made his disgust evident.

“What kind of loser volunteers to be an ICE officer?” he said in an Instagram video on Friday (8 August).

“What a moron. Dean Cain, your pronouns are has/been.”

Leguizamo is a longtime champion of diversity and Latino representation in the entertainment industry.

He is also a vocal critic of Trump. In 2016, he wrote a withering op-ed in the New York Times, calling out the president’s “racist rhetoric” and urging Latinos to vote in the US election.

His Instagram video was met with approval from fellow stars including Frank Grillo, known for roles in the political thriller Zero Dark Thirty, action thriller End of Watch, and as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels, behind films such as Precious, Monster’s Ball and Shadowboxer, simply wrote: “Haahahhahahahaahhaha.”

Posting to social media on Tuesday, Cain said he felt it was “important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans… so I joined up”.

Encouraging his followers to consider signing up as well, he wrote: “Here’s your opportunity to join ICE. You can earn lots of great benefits and pay. Since President Trump took office, ICE has arrested hundreds of thousands of criminals including terrorists, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, MS-13 gang members, drug traffickers, you name it – very dangerous people who are no longer on the streets.”

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He then listed some of the perks recruits could enjoy: “You can defend your homeland and get great benefits like a $50,000 signing bonus, think about that, student loan repayment (legally), enhanced retirement benefits and special benefits for those in field operations and law enforcement roles.

“You also don’t need an undergraduate degree, you can get to work right away. So if you want to help save America, ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America's streets. I like that. I voted for that.”

Many of Cain’s recent acting roles have been in films produced by the Christian entertainment studio JCFilms, including 2022’s Miracle at Manchester, about a high school athlete whose family credited “prayer” with saving him from aggressive brain cancer.