Promoting an international soccer competition effectively while one is simultaneously threatening and demonizing visitors from around the world evidently presents some logistical difficulties. And for critics who have argued that it’s absurd for the U.S. to host World Cup games in just a few short months, the past week has provided fresh evidence.
Critics warned in December that the Trump administration’s plan to require foreign visitors to turn over years of social media history to gain entry to the U.S. risked undermining World Cup attendance. But a newly announced program appears to have added yet another layer of confusion about who will be permitted to attend the games and how they can get approved.
On Tuesday, the State Department launched the FIFA Priority Appointment Schedule System, or FIFA PASS, a program it says will grant expedited visas to some people (those deemed acceptable by the State Department) to attend matches. Fox News reported that the “system will give World Cup ticket holders the opportunity to access prioritized visa appointments before the event begins on June 11. Prospective visa holders must be able to show that they qualify to obtain a visa and plan to follow the laws in the United States as well as leave the country once the tournament is over on July 19.”
Just last week, the administration announced that, as of Wednesday, it was suspending visas from 75 countries, including several countries that are sending teams to play in the tournament — a bigoted ban on immigrants from countries “whose migrants take welfare from the American people.” Then the administration clarified on Monday that the new visa restrictions don’t apply to temporary visas, such as those for tourists, students or attendees of sporting events. The administration further muddled things when it released a list of sporting events for which it will exempt a “small subset of travelers” (specifically, athletes, coaches and support staff) from the visa ban.
The administration has tried to frame the FIFA-branded visas as a seamless, surefire option for people looking to come to the games, but in reality, uncertainty abounds. The BBC reported Tuesday that despite the new FIFA visas, “doubt remains whether fans from every country to have qualified will be able to enter.” Fox 11 in Los Angeles, one of the U.S. host cities, also reported about World Cup fans who are worried about whether they’ll even be allowed to enter the country.
It’s worth noting that even those who are granted entry to the U.S. to attend World Cup matches aren’t guaranteed to stay out of the Trump administration’s crosshairs. Andrew Giuliani, who leads Donald Trump’s World Cup task force, declined to answer when asked last week whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be at stadiums when matches are being held. And in a country where immigration officials have been emboldened to stop people over suspicions about their race, accent or language, something as seemingly innocuous as attending a soccer match comes with added risk. It truly is no mystery why, as NBC Bay Area reported Tuesday, a growing number of World Cup fans are considering skipping the event due to the Trump administration’s hostile visa policies.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
