By Mark Friedman
One hundred and fifty community residents, activists, and members of UNITE Local 11 joined a June 7 protest in Los Angeles, California, days ahead of the opening World Cup games to demand that no ICE agents be present.
The Boycott Home Depot coalition has been protesting Home Depot’s permission to allow ICE agents on their property to detain suspected undocumented day laborers.
Home Depot has been one of the sites statewide where ICE officials have targeted immigrant workers, arresting hundreds throughout California and violating their liberties and legal rights.
The Boycott Home Depot Coalition says it’s standing in solidarity with the 2,000 United Local 11 union members who work as support staff at SoFi Stadium. The union is fighting for higher wages and won the right to strike if ICE enters UNITE-organized workplaces.
The action included members of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), Union del Barrio, unionists from the Roofers and Waterproofers local, the International Association of Machinists, and high school and college students.
Los Angeles Cuba activists at World Cup game: US Vs. Paraguay
LA Hands-Off Cuba Committee members were joined by others, especially from Mexico, in a distribution of flyers outside the first World Cup game played in LA June 12. They received a mixed response, most favorably from Latinos/as and youth.
Photo: Mark Friedman
The games have been totally commercialized by FIFA and the corporations sponsoring them; it has become a global spectacle to make billions. The cost of the tickets ranged from $1,000 to 3,000 which precluded most working people from participating.
In response, there were scores of watch parties in every part of the city; in parks, bars that were free or a minimal charge. LAHOC members felt that participating in these, rather than standing outside stadiums, even with banners and flyers as LA did, would be more productive.
According to the Miami Herald, Washington has sanctioned seventy-five counties with bans against entry to the United States. In the build up to the World Cup, more than 120 U.S. civil rights groups issued a joint travel advisory warning soccer fans, even those with visas, about the risk of facing immigration detention or removal during travels to the U.S. “We are now watching the World Cup begin while the very concerns communities have been raising remain unanswered,” said Yareliz Mendez Zamora, a Miami-based immigration advocate and policy coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee of Florida, in a statement.
Hundreds of soccer fans were denied visas to enter the country, including the entire South African soccer team as of this writing. Omar Artar, making history as Somalia’s first World Cup referee, was turned away upon arrival at Miami International Airport. The tickets for Iranian fans, revoked. The travel permits of Scottish spectators, withdrawn. The visas of Moroccan supporters, denied. Homeland Security interrogated the Iraqi soccer star Aymen Hussein at the Chicago airport for seven hours; the entire Iranian team has been denied the right to overnight in the US and has had to stay in Mexico and commute to LA for games.
These are some of the visa woes, refused entries and travel headaches that are unfolding in President Donald Trump’s era of mass deportations, visa suspensions, travel restrictions and heightened scrutiny.
The US has also denied visas to many Cuban athletes to enter the country for qualifying games and competitions or the 2028 summer Olympics itself. An international campaign to demand the International Olympic Committee abide by its own regulations and pressure Washington, is underway.  More information can be found at LetCubaPlay.com
IMAGE CREDITS:Â Â Photos > Mark Friedman
[ SOURCE:Â LA Hands-Off Cuba Committee / Mark Friedman ]
