While the tournament is slated to take place across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico starting next June, the swath of journalists reporting on the games will start arriving in Dallas in January 2026. However, officials within the U.S. Department of State have begun to worry about the effect federal policies on immigration could have on the international tournament, The Athletic reports.
Specifically, those officials are concerned that extended wait times for visa applications, President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and the administration’s hardline approach to deportation could threaten what FIFA President Gianni Infantino has claimed will be the “most inclusive World Cup ever."
With Dallas’ head start on international arrivals only eight months away, the city could be the first to grapple with the complications a buckled-down immigration system during what could be the largest World Cup in history. The Observer was told by several individuals involved with North Texas’ World Cup planning that these are questions some have started asking, but concrete answers have yet to arrive.
“This is not FIFA's first World Cup,” council member Omar Narvaez told the Observer. “Human rights are a huge tenet of FIFA. So I know that it’s been brought up, but not in a formal way. And as we learn more information, I know there are council members who will continue to ask those types of questions.”
“We want to be seen as a welcoming city, a very inclusive city." - Monica Paul, President of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee
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The Observer contacted the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee to ask if recent changes to immigration and deportation policy had been discussed. We were directed up the chain of command to FIFA.
The organization has previously stated to national outlets asking these questions: “It is worth noting that the current administration was in office during the successful bid process for 2026, and signed the government guarantees as part of that process. We continue to work with various departments and agencies of the U.S. Government to ensure the U.S. can capitalize on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to tap into billions of dollars in positive financial benefits and goodwill and bring millions of people from different nations and communities together to celebrate in the United States.”
‘A Welcoming Country’
On Wednesday afternoon, Infantino told reporters gathered in Washington that he had received assurances from the White House that foreign visitors travelling to the United States for the World Cup would be welcomed. “America welcomes the world. That’s how it has been, is, and will be,” Infantino said. “It is very important we have the engagement of the different government agencies to make sure that security is guaranteed, that fans can travel to the U.S. and around the U.S., that transportation is working perfectly, that the world will be welcomed.”
The United States (alongside Canada and Mexico) won the bid for the World Cup during Trump’s first term. At the time, the president assured the FIFA organization that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination.”
But even before the Trump administration’s recent actions called that promise into question, the president’s rhetoric did, something that Dallas has had to consider as a host city. Shortly after Trump won reelection last November, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson appeared on Fox News in support of the president-elect’s plans for the country’s largest mass deportation initiative in history.
A week later, Johnson’s on-air remarks were brought up during a meeting of the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sports Recruitment and Retention, as council member Jaime Resendez questioned whether the mayor’s stance would be considered aligned with FIFA’s partnership with the city.
Astonishing chart from Goldman showing the slump in overseas passengers arriving to the US. Presumably not largely because of the tariffs but because of the horror stories about random incarceration. pic.twitter.com/bladCSU0jM
— Mike Bird (@Birdyword) April 7, 2025
“How can we ensure that the rhetoric around immigration in our city, particularly the recent comments regarding deporting undocumented individuals, aligns with the human rights standards FIFA promotes?” Resendez asked.
Monica Paul, president of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, assured Moreno the issue would be “very important” to the committee moving forward.
“That’s something that we will definitely work [on] with FIFA as well as our state,” Paul responded. “We want to be seen as a welcoming city, a very inclusive city. We want to be able to welcome all the teams that may be here, whether it’s for base camps or training here, or fans that are coming here to experience the World Cup.”
Visa Troubles
The U.S. Department of State already issues a special visa for international journalists hoping to gain entry into the United States, and it’s a system that foreign media agencies are likely used to helping their reporters navigate, council member Narvaez pointed out to the Observer. According to the State Department website, an interview with a U.S. embassy is required for foreign members of the media applying for a journalist visa.Wait times for those interviews, though, can vary significantly depending on the media member’s home country, government data shows. The Moroccan national team has swept through World Cup Qualifiers so far this year, and a media member hoping to follow the team to the U.S. will face a 144-day waiting period for an embassy interview. However, other countries may not know for months if their team will make the tournament, and their embassy’s wait period could cut it close.
While Turkey’s national team faces an unlikely path to the tournament, the U.S. Embassy in Istanbul currently has a four-month wait time for media visa interview availability. And if the Nigerian national team makes it in, journalists may be unable to nab an embassy interview for 333 days, after the international broadcast center has opened but still before the beginning matches kick off.
Similar concerns about the wait times for visitor visa interviews, which would be required for spectators coming from Africa, most of South and Central America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and most of Asia, are beginning to ferment in the State Department, The Athletic reports. The investigation adds that governmental budget cuts at the hands of Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency could further exacerbate the issue.
“It’s going to be a massive problem,” David J. Bier, the associate director for immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told The Los Angeles Times. “There’s no one paying attention to this at all.”
Further, recent events call into question whether those visas will be honored at all. Last week, The Guardian reported that an Australian man whose U.S. visa had a year of eligibility left was apprehended while going through customs in Houston. The man claims he was accused of trafficking drugs, a charge he has denied, and was escorted by airport agents to a flight heading back to Australia. His visa was subsequently canceled.
Similar stories have been shared by an Australian mixed martial arts coach who was detained while entering the U.S. for a seminar; a German tourist who spent 16 days in an immigration detention center after being stopped at the border; a French scientist who was apprehended by immigration officers while on his way to a conference and denied entry into the U.S. for expressing his distaste for President Trump in online messages.
“What is happening at the federal level?” Manka Dhingra, a Democratic state senator from Washington, recently asked in a press conference. Seattle is slated to host six World Cup matches. “It is not safe for people from other countries to come to the United States right now because people are literally being picked up from the streets and taken away.”
