Immigrant, Civil Rights Groups Issue Florida Travel Alert For Fifa World Cup

CORAL GABLES, Florida — A coalition of immigrant and civil rights organizations warned international tourists Thursday to reconsider travel to Florida for FIFA World Cup games, citing aggressive illegal immigration enforcement measures and detention centers like “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The groups stressed during a press conference held outside FIFA’s downtown offices near Miami that they weren’t calling for a boycott like former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and others have pushed for — but may not take it off the table in the future as hordes of fans prepare to descend on the Magic City.

“We're using this opportunity to really urge visitors and tourists to have a calculated move about whether or not they're going to come,” said Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, coordinator for American Friends Service Committee, a social justice and humanitarian nonprofit.

The groups are issuing an advisory urging fans from other countries to carry IDs and register travel with their consulate ahead of visiting the U.S. for the tournament that begins in June.

“What we don't want is our fans being harassed by immigration enforcement when they're just trying to attend the game,” said Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, adding that he wanted “assurances that there won't be immigration enforcement happening at these games indiscriminately.”

Dariel Gomez, a field organizer for ACLU Florida, said the groups’ goal was not to spread fear or panic but to “offer a sobering reality check” that some people may face racial profiling or detainment.

A FIFA representative declined comment. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who awarded the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize” to President Donald Trump in December, said previously that “fans from all over the world will be welcome.” The White House created a FIFA task force last year that includes Miami native Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but a representative from the task force didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Alongside arrests and fatal shootings in Minneapolis, the groups issuing the advisory raised concerns about the travel bans in place. Though the Trump administration created some carve-outs from the multiple countries under a U.S. travel ban for players, coaches and their families, it did not issue the same exemption for Haiti, which qualified to compete in the men’s World Cup for the first time in 52 years, or for Iran.

This weekend, ICE isn’t planning immigration enforcement around the Super Bowl, according to The Washington Post. But Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House task force for the World Cup, didn’t directly say in December whether ICE raids were possible around the soccer matches this summer, instead stressing that “continuous conversations were happening” and that "the president does not rule out anything that will help make American citizens safer."

Seven World Cup matches are scheduled for South Florida. The state has among the strictest laws against illegal immigration in the U.S., including local law enforcement coordinating with the administration on mass deportation efforts. The organizations issuing the travel warning this week pointed to alleged instances in which tourists or U.S. citizens have been detained to underscore their concerns.

Civil rights and LGBTQ organizations similarly issued travel advisories in Florida in 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP state legislators prohibited diversity, equity and inclusion trainings in workplaces and such lessons in schools, and when they restricted health care access and instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. Organizations that issued the travel advisory at the press conference Thursday also included the voting rights organization Florida Rising and the immigrant advocacy group Semillas de Colombia.

Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency, did not respond to a request for comment on the latest advisory. Past warnings did not appear to affect the state’s tourism numbers. Though they received widespread coverage, Florida still saw record tourism in 2023, state data show.

“What a joke,” DeSantis said of the advisories at the time. “Yeah, we’ll see, we’ll see how effective that is.”