ICE in the Stands: Fear and Loathing at the FIFA Club World Cup

The presence of immigration agents cratered ticket prices at the opener this weekend in Miami, a foreboding sign of things to come.

WASHINGTON — It used to be that all a soccer fan had to worry about was the price of beer or maybe the striker with two left feet. Now, in Donald Trump's America, the new game day accessory is proof of legal status—and maybe a lawyer on speed dial.

The World Cup is coming. The Club World Cup is already here. The greatest show on Earth. A rolling, roaring festival of flags, chants, and sweat-soaked euphoria that brings every kind of person together, from Qatari oil heirs to Honduran dishwashers. But here in the land of the free and the home of the mass deportations, it’s not just goals fans are afraid of missing. They're afraid of getting disappeared.

“I really, really didn’t want to let it go,” one fan told Yahoo! Sports, referring to his Club World Cup ticket. He sold it anyway—"out of fear of apprehension or persecution." Welcome to the kickoff.

At the heart of it is a Facebook post—now scrubbed, but never forgotten—by Customs and Border Protection. It read like a warning shot: “CBP wi…