A coalition of community organizations and documentary filmmaker Billy Corben on Thursday called again on FIFA and Miami-Dade to use their influence to protect soccer fans from federal immigration agents roaming stadiums during next year’s World Cup tournament.
At a demonstration in front of FIFA’s Coral Gables office, they pressured officials to protect World Cup attendees from “overzealous immigration enforcement” and to reinvest Miami-Dade County tax dollars set aside for the World Cup into the local community. They held a similar protest in June.
“Miami-Dade is a proud county of immigrants, and we are subsidizing the World Cup with over $60 million in public cash and resources,” Corben said during Thursday’s press conference. “In a year in which we suffered a $400 million budget deficit, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is failing us all.”
The activists say their fears about immigration agents are warranted, citing last week’s New York Times report that revealed “FIFA was alerted to 145 human rights concerns at Club World Cup games, including federal policies and enforcement.”…