Human rights group says US is facing an ‘emergency’
ICE director said agency will play ‘key part’ at tournament
Amnesty International has warned that the World Cup, spread across three North American countries, risks becoming a “stage for repression”. The human rights organisation published a report on Monday – “Humanity Must Win” – calling on Fifa and the host countries, the US, Canada and Mexico, to take urgent action to protect fans, players and other communities.
Fifa has promised a tournament where everyone “feels safe, included and free to exercise their rights”. But Amnesty said that pledge sat in “stark contrast” to conditions in all three host nations, especially the US, which hosts three-quarters of the 104 matches.
Amnesty described the US as facing a “human rights emergency” under the Donald Trump administration, marked by mass deportations, arbitrary arrests and what it called “paramilitary-style” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The acting director of ICE said last month the agency would be “a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup”. This comes despite anger at the killing of two American citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis in January.
