The 2026 World Cup will be the first to have the format of 48 participating teams and the largest number of matches will be played in the United States, one of the countries with the largest number of immigrants and with the largest number of nationalities in its territory. Under the second term of Donald Trump, the migrant population has been one of the hardest hit groups in his first year, and he has threatened to expand it during his administration without any truce.
The US president does not rule out raids or arrests of immigrants during the FIFA World Cup, the head of the White House task force for the sporting event, Andrew Giuliani, said on Wednesday. “I must insist that President Trump wants his country to be safer and for the World Cup to be played in complete tranquility for Americans and their visitors,” Giuliani said during a press conference in Washington, ahead of the draw for the World Cup groups to be held on Friday in the US capital.
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The son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also stressed that visa wait times have been reduced at consular sections in participating countries such as Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil to less than two months, and that European countries and Japan have visa waivers. It is worth noting that there are two participating countries in the World Cup that are on the list of 19 nations whose citizens are banned from entering the United States by order of the Trump administration: Haiti and Iran.
Giuliani noted that “some” of the delegations from both teams have obtained waivers to be allowed entry into the United States. In the case of Haitian and Iranian fans who want to attend as spectators, Giuliani referred the issue to the State Department, which is responsible for granting visas. “What we will not tolerate is troublemakers who threaten security,” stressed the former golfer, who said that the sporting event will demonstrate that security and hospitality can go hand in hand.
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The 2026 World Cup group stage draw will take place on Friday, December 5 in the US capital, where the 42 already qualified teams have arrived, with the remaining six places to be decided in late March in the European and Intercontinental playoffs. The World Cup, which will take place between June 11 and July 19 next year and will also be hosted by Canada and Mexico, comes at a time marked by the harshness of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
When asked about the possibility that visas will not be granted to people intending to visit the United States to attend the World Cup, Giuliani stressed that for the US executive, every decision on a visa is a national security decision. He recalled that Trump and FIFA recently announced that anyone with a ticket to see a match is guaranteed an appointment with immigration authorities to try to obtain a visa.
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