The World Cup is supposed to be a moment of joy. It’s one of the few times the energy shifts and we all come together. We gather with our families and compas in packed living rooms, our favorite neighborhood bars, and stadiums to support our soccer teams. For those of us who grew up loving fútbol, we see our pride, culture, and resilience reflected on a global stage.
For the Love of The Game
The World Cup has always meant something deeper for our gente. Our communities built fútbol into what it is today. On dirt roads, empty lots, and crowded public parks– we’ve made the game our own with whatever we had and whoever was around. Soccer is a game that reminds us where we come from and connects us to those we love, even across borders.
For the first time in history, the World Cup will be played across an entire continent, with 104 matches happening in 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It’s a historic and monumental moment, a celebration of the beautiful game.
But here in the U.S., that joy is already being put under threat. While the rest of the world prepares to cheer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to show up.
The Danger ICE Poses
DHS has publicly announced that ICE will be a part of “security efforts” at World Cup soccer matches. They claim that ICE agents will help keep things “safe”, as if the last year (and decades before it) haven’t already shown us what ICE’s version of “safety” looks like. We’ve watched them tear our families apart, raid our workplaces without warrants, and detain our children— like in the case of Austin goalie Luis Fernando Chavarria, who played on his high school soccer team and is now sitting in detention after being stopped for an expired registration sticker on his way home from his late-night shift at a local fast-food restaurant. Safety isn’t what they do— they’re in the cruel enterprise of destabilizing our communities. What they do is create fear— in our homes, on our commutes to work, and now even in our moments of celebration.
We know what ICE’s real purpose is. Their idea of “keeping things safe” has always meant the harassment, surveillance and incarceration of the very communities that make this country– and this sport– what it is. From the raids that target workers trying to provide for their families to the detention centers like Dilley where children and families are held under dehumanizing conditions ( for months, ICE’s brutal record speaks for itself, with new instances of failure seemingly popping up anywhere they arrive.
ICE’s Pattern: Arrive, Dis
During the partial government shutdown that left TSA workers without paychecks for 44 days , ICE agents waltzed into airports all over the country. Instead of stepping in to address the chaos at understaffed security checkpoints, our timelines flooded with updates from travelers showing idle agents strutting around aimlessly, posing for cameras when noticing them and refusing to answer what their actual contributions were when confronted by travelers in between gates. Lines still stretched for hours, entire families were missing flights, and the whole system was hanging by a precarious thread.
And let’s not forget the Super Bowl. ICE showed up there too– not to protect anyone or handle real security threats, but to stage photo ops, much like last July’s showy publicity stunt in L.A.’s MacArthur Park. They propped up agents in for shiny hi-res shots near the Levi’s Stadium in California,pushing their narrative with tax-payer funded stunts designed to flex their power.
Now, they want to do the same during the largest soccer matches of the year, when they know the eyes of the world are on them.
The pattern is loud and clear, and we see right through it. ICE shows up, flexes for the cameras, snaps photos for social media, and calls it “security” while offering nothing. What they do succeed at is creating fear. This is a fear that makes workers hesitate to show up, families second-guess leaving their homes to join their local watch parties, and whole communities feel like we don’t belong in the spaces we built.
It’s the same tactic ICE uses again and again: show up, disrupt, spread fear. But we’re resisting that.
Soccer For and By the People
At the heart of our fight to keep La Copa for our communities are the workers. They are the force that makes every single soccer match possible. The workers who clean and prepare the stadiums, staff the hotels, serve the food, and more. They keep everything running behind the scenes and are the backbone of this historic moment. Without them, there is no World Cup.
For workers, even the thought of ICE nearby creates a crushing pressure to reconsider everything. Imagine heading to a shift, trying to do your job, but the back of your mind is filled with doubts. You wonder if the next knock at the door, or unexpected interaction, could be the one that changes everything and uproots your family’s life.
For some, the fear becomes too much. They skip shifts, lose pay, and put their households at risk because the stakes are just too high. And for those that do clock in, the fear still lingers– it follows through every step of their shift. Speaking up about unsafe conditions, low pay, or exploitative bosses is already hard for working folks just trying to survive. But when ICE is in the picture, it becomes almost impossible. It’s exactly what these agencies are counting on. Fear that traps workers in silence and leaves them afraid to demand the dignity and protections they deserve.
The Workers are Leaning into their Power
Just like we’ve seen across movement history, in our own neighborhoods, and in every single space where our people have been pushed down, workers are rising up. They are organizing, fighting back, and refusing to let this moment pass by.
In host cities across North America, workers are refusing to accept that FIFA’s profits should come at the expense of their safety and dignity. In Los Angeles, UNITE HERE Local 11 workers at SoFi stadium (where private suites are going for 200k per match) have affirmed that they’re prepared to strike if ICE is present. They’ve also publicly challenged FIFA’s intrusive accreditation process, which forces workers to submit their personal data with no protections against misuse or a non-sharing agreement with agencies like ICE.
In Miami, labor unions are demanding what they’ve called a Labor Peace Agreement, calling for fair wages, safe conditions, and mental health resources. They’re also pushing for local hiring for the seven matches the city is set to host, including the Bronze Medal game. In Atlanta, labor groups and community advocates are calling for investments in affordable housing, investment in infrastructure, and a commitment for local leadership to strengthen policies standing against ICE.
Meanwhile in Mexico City, teachers are planning strikes during the tournament to demand long-overdue reforms to pensions, fair wages, and the education system. And to the north in Toronto, TTC maintenance workers are pushing for fair wages and better schedules. They know that thousands of tourists and visitors will rely on their labor maintaining the public transit system to access matches.
Across every single host city, the message is clear. Workers and their community allies will not let this massive tournament profit from our cities without demanding dignity, backed by actual protections and not just empty rhetoric. While FIFA is expecting to generate $13 billion at the close of the four-year cycle that closes with this World Cup, those profits will not come at the expense of our gente.
Es Nuestra Copa
The World Cup was never meant as a place for fear, and juntes, we are refusing to let it be. Moments like this should exist to uplift the hope, pride, and unity that fútbol brings to so many of us around the world. It should be a place where all fans get to revel in the extraordinary talent on the soccer fields. Right now, reckless agencies like ICE and corporations putting their profits over people want to take that away from us. They want to make us believe that even in the spaces that would not exist without us, our belonging is up for them to decide.
But workers are standing up to say otherwise. Unions, organizers, and workers are showing up and showing out to remind everyone, especially ICE and FIFA, who this tournament really belongs to. It belongs to the people. To the workers who power it. To the fans and communities who’ve built the game from the ground up. It belongs to us.
The resilience, solidarity, and creativity on the streets and online that we’ve seen leading up to the official kick off have been amazing. And it’s shown us one thing loud and clear. We can’t back down. This is the time to meet our people where they’re at, organize, and win what we deserve.
If you’re ready to plug in, there’s a space for you in Our Copa campaign. Check out our digital hub where you’ll find everything you need to host a watch party, rally your crew, and rep your team while building power for our communities.
Ojo: We stand for the dignity of all workers (unionized or not) because every bit of labor that keeps our communities moving deserves respect and protection. This includes our street vendors who hustle day in and day out to feed us, even in the face of criminalization and harassment. Street vendor labor is labor, from our fruteros to eloteros to the hot dog vendors firing up their grills in stadium parking lots as fans make their way home.
Their labor is just as essential as any other, and their fight for dignity is part of the broader lucha to protect all workers who are undervalued and exploited. From the streets to the stadiums, every single worker deserves safety, respect, and solidarity– no matter if they clock in or not.
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where we’ll highlight ongoing efforts to protect all workers that make our sporting events what they are.