Lawmakers flag concerns about World Cup visas,

WASHINGTON — With the World Cup just six months away and the event draw unfolding Friday, members of California’s congressional delegation are expressing concern about preparations for what would be the largest and most complicated single-sport competitors in historical past.

The event, which is able to function 48 groups taking part in 104 video games across the U.S., Mexico and Canada, provides a once-in-a-generation alternative for the 11 U.S. host cities to both showcase themselves to the world and grab a slice of what FIFA estimates can be a $30.5-billion financial affect. But to take full benefit of that alternative, organizers need authorities help on points ranging from visas to security while also dealing with ticket costs far past the means of the average fan.

The event draw will happen Friday morning at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where the 42 nations that already certified can be randomly assigned to one of 12 teams for the event’s opening spherical. That’s the last major hurdle for a World Cup that will open June 11 in Mexico City and end July 19 in East Rutherford, N.J.

After that comes the Herculean process of placing on the first World Cup in the U.S. in 32 years, one that will require bipartisan authorities cooperation on a number of ranges. Get it proper, and the upside is big. Get it incorrect, and the harm to U.S. status can be important.

And so far, the politicians say, the Trump administration has confirmed to be as combative as it has been cooperative.

“There’s so many layers to the economic engine that is the World Cup. It’s going to be successful. I’m highly confident of that,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said. “But to ensure its success — not just on an economic front, but on a logistical and security front — the best thing that we can all do is focus on the task at hand.

“Focus on federal government, state government and local government collaboration.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) also is optimistic but guardedly so, given the work still to be accomplished.

“You’re talking about visas, you’re talking about infrastructure, you’re talking about transportation, you’re talking about national security,” said Kamlager-Dove, whose district abuts Inglewood and SoFi Stadium, web site of eight World Cup video games. “You’re actually also talking about morale and a brand. People don’t want to buy a brand that sucks, or that’s losing or that isn’t inclusive.

“We can’t afford to have that happen for the World Cup.”

According to a November research by the consulting firm Tourism Economics, 1.24 million international guests are anticipated to come to the U.S. for the World Cup, less than half what FIFA, the event organizer, projected. Still, that reverses a pattern in which worldwide tourism dropped more than 6% this 12 months. Nearly 2 million World Cup tickets have been offered, with most going to people in the three host nations. More seats will go on sale next Thursday.

Fans in 209 other nations and territories also purchased tickets, according to FIFA, and many of those followers will need visas to use them. Getting those paperwork has confirmed troublesome.

Last spring Congress warned the State Department that its visa-processing system — which required candidates in some nations to wait more than a 12 months merely for an appointment — needed to be streamlined. Three weeks in the past the Trump administration rolled out the FIFA Prioritized Appointment Scheduling System, or PASS, which is able to enable candidates with World Cup tickets to apply for an expedited visa interview.

The administration doubled down on that Thursday, instructing embassies and consulates to prioritize visa functions for foreigners planning to attend the World Cup or the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration added more than 400 consular officers around the globe to deal with the demand.

“All attention should be on our outstanding athletes, not bureaucratic backlogs,” said Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills), who partnered with Kamlager-Dove to urge the State Department to expedite visa processing. “The administration has made clear that these major sporting events are a top priority.”

Yet while gamers and coaches are clear to come, some World Cup followers are ineligible even for the expedited visa course of. In June the Trump administration, citing security concerns, blocked or restricted journey to the U.S. for residents of 19 nations — including Iran and Haiti, whose nations certified for the World Cup — and is contemplating increasing the ban to another dozen nations following the capturing of two National Guard troops in Washington last month.

Iran certified for the 2026 World Cup but is among the nations whose followers face restricted access touring to the United States for the event.

(Mohamed Farag / Getty Images)

That isn’t precisely in line with the philosophy behind the event, which FIFA says is to bridge cultural, political and social divides. The ban also clashes with what President Trump said during his first time period in 2018, when he promised FIFA in writing that followers from all nations would find a way to enter the U.S. without discrimination.

“When we made the bid to host, we were taking on the responsibility of making sure that every country that qualified would be able to travel and play,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Livermore), who attended school on a soccer scholarship. “I don’t like what it says about us as a host country, if we’re just denying visas and excluding countries.

“We’ve dramatically increased the number of teams who qualify. And that model cannot work if you have a host country that is making political decisions that affect who is eligible and who’s not.”

Swalwell worries about the long-term results of such bans if the U.S. successfully determines which certified groups can compete in the event.

“We will never have the World Cup again,” he said. “We will be permanently banned, essentially, from hosting. We will so tarnish our reputation.”

The congressman isn’t naive to the potential risks the Trump insurance policies are supposed to deal with. He is a member of the Task Force on Enhancing Security for Special Events, which focuses on oversight of security preparations for the World Cup as properly as the 2028 Olympics and other worldwide sporting occasions.

“The response, to me, is not to deny teams from playing,” Swalwell said. “It’s to surge resources and have security conditions and requirements for countries that are riskier.”

“There has to be proper security, vetting for folks coming in from other countries,” Padilla agreed. “Los Angeles is no stranger to these large-scale events, from prior Olympics that we’ve hosted, Super Bowls that we’ve hosted. State and local officials in California know what we’re doing. We just need the federal government to do its part.”

Some help was included in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which handed Congress in July. It contains $625 million for a grant program to help U.S. host cities fund measures such as enhanced background checks and cybersecurity. The invoice also units apart an further $500 million in grants to counter the risk of drone assaults, which have turn out to be a key fear for organizers of large occasions.

“We’ve had, obviously, Super Bowls. But the World Cup is going to be multiple Super Bowls happening at once,” said a legislative aide for Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the security process power. “We’ve never had this number of people coming in for this many events over two months, essentially.”

In addition to the threats from outdoors, human rights teams and Congressional representatives also raised fears that dispatching National Guard troops and Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers, who have been despatched to the streets of at least 17 major U.S. cities — including seven World Cup markets — will ship the incorrect message by militarizing the video games.

“Scaring the bejesus out of people unnecessarily, who are scared that if they go to a game, somebody’s going to jump out of a dumpster and snatch them and put them in a U-Haul van and deport them to Liberia, that’s not how you boost ticket sales,” said Kamlager-Dove, whose concerns are shared by Padilla, Swalwell and others in the California congressional delegation.

SoFi Stadium in Inglewood will host eight matches during the 2026 World Cup.

(FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Ticket distribution, which is managed by FIFA, also has turn out to be a concern amid brisk gross sales. For the first time, FIFA stepped into the profitable secondary market for World Cup tickets, taking a 30% cut — in two separate 15% transactions — from every resale, a markup many scalpers would contemplate extreme. On a ticket resold for $1,000, for instance, FIFA takes $150 from the vendor (who receives $850) and fees the client an additional $150 (who pays $1,150 complete), ensuing in a $300 revenue for FIFA.

In earlier World Cups, resale costs have been capped at face worth and FIFA charged charges of 10% or less. Not so this 12 months, with one vendor reportedly asking $44,000 for a ticket to July’s closing while FIFA’s lowest price for a personal suite to that recreation is $199,000.

Yet there’s a ready record to pay that.

By comparability, the most costly ticket for the World Cup closing in Qatar 4 years in the past was $1,607, a 46% increase from 2018.

“They have to get a little more transparent about why they’re charging so much,” Kamlager-Dove said. “Why does it feel like price gouging?”

Finally, there’s the uncertainty that descends over World Cup cities every time Trump, who will attend Friday’s draw, muses about taking video games out of locations like Seattle, Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area, a warning he last made just three weeks in the past. While FIFA officers dismissed the threats, they’re troublesome to ignore — particularly for followers about to spend tens of hundreds of {dollars} to journey to those cities.

The distractions, Swalwell said, are ones the World Cup doesn’t need less than 200 days from the opening recreation.

“It’s a real opportunity for America to shine. That’s appealing,” he said. “We have an opportunity to show that we’re open for business, we’re open for sport. I hope the president embraces that rather than sabotage the Americans who would suffer if he gets this wrong.”

Kim, like Padilla, is assured the event can be a historic success and says the president will deserve credit for that.

“This summer’s World Cup, along with the upcoming L.A. 2028 Olympics, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Southern California to shine — bringing in billions in economic activity, millions of visitors, and showcasing the very best of our communities,” she said. “We can’t afford to take our eye off the ball. We must meet the moment and be prepared to welcome fans, athletes and media from around the globe.

“I have no doubt President Trump will continue driving this effort forward to make these games not just successful, but the greatest America has ever hosted.”