Will ICE agents patrol AT&T Stadium this summer? You can likely count on it
The executive director of the White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup places a premium on security, but has stopped short of saying the home matches at AT&T Stadium will feature ICE and border agents.
On Thursday morning at AT&T Stadium, the White House’s task force director, Andrew Giuliani, toured the facility that, starting June 14, will host a World Cup-high nine matches. Looking at Giuliani’s entourage, it would appear that Elon Musk’s chainsaw to wasteful government spending missed a few dozen spots.
And since we are on the subject of shameless nepotism, if you wonder why you recognize the name Andrew Giuliani, he is the son of disgraced former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Don’t think Andrew needed to update his LinkedIn profile to land his job.
We are less than six months from the start of what will be the largest World Cup ever, and one issue will shadow every match played in the United States. It has nothing to do with football, futbol, or soccer: it concerns ICE, ICE agents, and whether the matches will turn into ugly sites of demonstrations, roundups and deportations.
Security is always a major point of discussion in international sporting events; considering the rising presence of ICE in the last year, this has the potential to create a distraction that FIFA will loathe, and embarrass the U.S. Check that; embarrass part of the U.S.
When asked whether ICE officials will be at the games, Giuliani ducked the question. I asked him why the White House is reluctant to say yes or no.
“I’m not gonna get in front of the secretary of homeland security and the president on that,” Giuliani said. “I know we’re in the middle of planning a federal resources perspective.”
(Your tax dollars at work.)
“I want to be clear to everybody — I think the president, when you’ve looked at what the president has said about this World Cup, the vice president (JD Vance), Secretary (of State Marco Rubio), we want to welcome the world here to enjoy this,” Giuliani said. “There is a process to be able to welcome people to come here the right way, if they’re here legally, if they come legally, then we are arms open, but we talk about security being the key issue here.
“And as security is so important, we have to have an idea of who’s in the country; we have to have an idea of who’s coming to these games as well, otherwise, I can’t tell you that I’ve done the best job that I possibly can to make sure that the homeland is safe and the secretary (Kristi Noem) wouldn’t be able to do it, nor the president as well. That’s the commitment that he’s made to the American people, and that’s the commitment that I know he focuses on our daily basis.”
Translation — yes. There will be ICE officials at World Cup matches in 2026, if for no reason other than to show off and look cool.
Appearance is a virtue now, and a masked ICE official whose credentials are a high school diploma combined with the ability to breathe while carrying a semi-automatic weapon outside a soccer match featuring teams from countries that don’t speak English makes for a good post on an Instagram page.
There is nothing in the past year that suggests that the portion of this global event that will take place in the U.S. will proceed with anything less than exhausting chaos, a spoonful of stupid, and a dash of tragedy.
ICE started in 2003 as part of the Homeland Security Act, which was passed as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For a good portion of its existence, most Americans thought ICE was ice, or an entertainer.
Here in 2026, ICE is the masked face of law enforcement, with plenty of power and little of the accountability. Law enforcement is one thing, but all Americans can agree there are far too many instances in the past 12 months that have echoes of 1938 Berlin, or 1989 Tiananmen Square.
America is better than this. But we’re not.
During the World Cup, America will celebrate its 250th birthday. The longer we live, the more we look like countries whose existence predates us by centuries. We are a nation of mutts, and it is overly idealistic to believe we are that much different than our ancestors.
At 250, we are now more apt to loathe than revere our elected officials, whose ambition is not civic minded but rather a power-laced ego stroke, a career plan that the founding fathers the professional politician routinely cites abhorred.
Donald Trump is not the first president to make border security, or enforcing immigration laws, a priority. Democrats have done it, too. Scaring the bleep out of voters is an effective campaign tactic, and demonizing immigrants can usually motivate the masses.
What we saw in 2025 with the rise of ICE has no signs of abating in 2026, and by the time the World Cup arrives in Texas, a faceless ICE agent could be just as big as Messi.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 5:07 PM.
