AFL-CIO calls on FIFA to keep ICE out of the World Cup

“FIFA must be transparent about its plans for engaging with DHS and the administration so that workers can do their jobs without fear”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 12, 2026) — The World Cup kicks off in a month, potentially bringing millions of visitors to host cities across the U.S. The workers who staff the stadiums and nearby hotels that will host these guests are raising concerns about who else will be in town: ICE agents. In a letter published Monday, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler urged the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to prevent ICE’s presence at the World Cup, calling out the “tactics of discrimination, violence and intimidation used by immigration agencies to target working people,”

The Trump administration announced earlier this year that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) would play a “key part” in event security during the World Cup. Since then, hospitality workers and their unions in Seattle, Los Angeles, and other World Cup host cities in the U.S. have been escalating pressure on FIFA and hospitality employers to block ICE agents from stadiums and hotels around World Cup venues. Some news reports suggest the administration may be rethinking ICE’s involvement. But with games slated to start June 11 and continued silence from FIFA, workers aren’t taking any chances.

ICE has engaged in blatant racial profiling, including broad sweeps using violent tactics to detain working people in cities and towns across the U.S. Many hospitality workers in stadiums and nearby hotels are Black and brown; the presence of an unaccountable federal force targeting people based on skin color poses a serious workplace safety threat to thousands of workers.

Photo: Aflo. Design: The STAND

Per the AFL-CIO letter: “Given the racial profiling, warrantless arrests and other unconstitutional tactics the Trump administration is using to detain and deport people with no regard for due process, our affiliate unions are deeply concerned about ICE being engaged for any purpose during the World Cup. Indeed, some unions have signaled that this would create an unsafe work environment that may require them to take collective action to ensure that no members are put at risk.”

In Los Angeles, UNITE HERE Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen told Labor On The Line that members are ready to take action, including potentially withholding their labor, if FIFA doesn’t take action to prevent ICE at the World Cup. The local represents 2,000 food service workers at LA’s SoFi Stadium, which will host games in the city.

“If FIFA and the owners of the stadium are going to allow ICE to roam around the stadium and our city during the World Cup, then our members are going to do whatever they need to do, up to and including a strike,” said Petersen. “And our members are ready to do it.”

On May Day, members of UNITE HERE Local 8 in active contract negotiations with Embassy Suites demonstrated outside the Seattle hotel and marched to the local FIFA volunteer office in Pioneer Square to present a letter demanding no ICE at the World Cup. This Embassy Suites location is next to Lumen Field, where World Cup games will be played starting June 15.

Beyond concerns over ICE’s presence at games and staying in nearby hotels, workers are also pushing back on the background check process FIFA is requiring for anyone working in stadiums hosting World Cup games. FIFA’s website states the organization will share this extensive personal information–name, address, exact geolocation coordinates, passport or driver’s license number, social media accounts, emergency contacts–with security authorities and host countries.

“Given the ways in which federal agencies are violating workers’ privacy rights to build datasets to support unconstitutional immigration enforcement activity, and FIFA’s relative silence on the scope and implications of these checks, we are asking you to commit to working with unions so that they can fully understand the process to which their members will be subjected and ensure that workers’ privacy and safety are respected,” wrote the AFL-CIO in its letter to FIFA leadership. “Specifically, we seek assurances from FIFA that no information reported in these checks will be shared with any constituent part of DHS that engages in immigration enforcement or used for immigration enforcement purposes.”

As the tournament approaches, labor’s message is clear: FIFA must act to protect the tens of thousands of working people whose labor makes the World Cup possible.