Danny Trejo insists he does not support ICE after fans question his role in the Pawn Shop film

Danny Trejo wants his fans to know where he stands. The actor says he does not back ICE, even though he signed on to a film about immigration enforcement made by Ben Shapiro's company.

"I am not pro ice," Trejo said in his first comments about the movie. Trejo described himself as Mexican and proud of it. He said he has backed his community his whole life. He also said he is in favor of immigrants and knows the struggles his people have faced.

The movie

The film is called Pawn Shop and comes from the Daily Wire. It centers on a federal agent who hides inside a Minneapolis pawn shop during unrest over immigration raids. Shapiro has described the project as pro-ICE. That label left some of Trejo's fans asking why he would take part.

People tied to the production say Trejo plays the shop's owner. The store has been passed down through his family and his character is a military veteran. Harvey Keitel plays another veteran who has fallen on hard times. Trejo's character gives him work guarding the shop.

Why he took the part

Video recorded earlier on the set in Livingston, Montana seemed to restage the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Insiders say the trouble in the story starts when ICE agents arrive in the shop's parking lot. The bloodshed that follows is said to echo what happened to Good and Alex Pretti.

According to those insiders Trejo told people on set he liked that the script showed a Latino man and a veteran in a good light. He reportedly saw the story as a picture of the country right now.

Off screen he says his views have not changed. "I am an actor. My job is to tell a story," he said.