Trump's LA immigration showdown casts shadow over upcoming World Cup

When FIFA announced in 2018 that the United States had been selected to host the 2026 World Cup, President Donald Trump — then two years into his first term — offered a characteristically bombastic prediction: the soccer championship, cohosted by Canada and Mexico, would be "maybe the biggest sporting event in the world." But now, with just one year until the games begin, observers have begun raising red flags about Trump's militarized anti-immigration efforts and their potential effect on the thousands of international travelers expected to visit.

'Planning within uncertainty'

It's "hard to imagine" what the U.S. will look like by the time the World Cup games take place, said Brian Phillips at The Ringer. The Trump administration's project of "refashioning American culture around isolationist and xenophobic impulses" runs "directly counter to the project of the World Cup." Given what is "happening at the national level," said Meg Kane, the executive in charge of Philadelphia's host city duties, to The Athletic, "we recognize that we're planning within uncertainty."

FIFA's 2025 Club World Cup, "considered in many ways to be a dress rehearsal for the big event," has received "little buzz" ahead of its opening game on June 14 in Florida, said The Associated Press. While partially the result of "diminished" exclusivity after FIFA expanded participation from seven to 32 teams, reports of foreign visitors detained by immigration authorities, ongoing ICE raids and protests, and the Trump administration's revamped travel ban "aren't exactly reassuring international fans, either." Customs and Border Protection will have operatives "suited and booted" for the Club World Cup games, the agency said in a since-deleted post on X. The possibility of Department of Homeland Security agents on site at the international games will "inflame an already tense situation," said the Los Angeles Times.

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Typically, soccer fans "go all out" for "once-in-a-lifetime trips" to the World Cup, said The New York Times. This year, however, those trips "might already be doomed" thanks to excessive visa wait times for several countries that "stretch past next summer's tournament" — a scenario that previous host countries prevented by instituting waiver programs for ticket holders. But "nothing similar is in place for next summer" in the United States. Moreover, the White House's "tough immigration policies" have made hiring specialized staff usually tapped for complex, multi-stage events like the World Cup games "harder than usual."

'The world doesn't stop'

Challenges notwithstanding, organizers of the upcoming games are both acknowledging the complex context in which their work is taking place and projecting confidence that the games will nevertheless live up to the championships' lofty reputation. "Our goal is to make sure everyone who comes to New York-New Jersey has an incredible time," said New York-New Jersey host Committee CEO Alex Lasry to Reuters. "The world doesn't stop for these sporting events." The key is to "go with the flow and make sure that you're able to adapt."

Conversations about immigration policy and potential pitfalls for the upcoming games are happening among the "right people at the federal level, at the FIFA level," said Mike Loynd, president of the Boston host city committee, to The Guardian. The "intent, even there, is to welcome the world."