The United States Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, said that visa applications of tourists interested in traveling to the United States will be thoroughly examined to attend the 2026 World Cup, of which Mexico and Canada are also co -elites.
«We have an established process that we will implement for visa approval. All will be thoroughly examined, but they will be welcome to this country, ”said Noem from the Oval Office with the US president, Donald Trump, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
“I hope that throughout the world, people know that the US is excited to bring their families here to enjoy this event,” he added.
Minutes before, Trump himself had assured that some countries would have it “very easy” to enter, while for citizens of other countries it would be “a little more difficult.”
The statement took place during an act in which Trump announced that the raffle to determine the composition of the World Cup groups will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC
The tournament, in which the Argentine National Team will defend the title conquered in Qatar, will take place between June 11 and July 19, 2026 in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The final will take place at the Metlife Stadium, in Easth Rutherford, New Jersey, on the outskirts of New York City.
However, the competition arrives at a time of great tension in the US in terms of immigration policy, where it stops daily undocumented immigrants in mass raids to deport them to other countries.
The Trump government has also revoked temporary residence permits of citizens of various nationalities, and on Thursday he announced that he is verifying more than 55 million people with valid visas, in search of possible infractions that could result in the annulment of the documents and deportation of the United States.
This has generated doubts about the possible impact of these measures on foreigners who want to travel to the event in the US, and about the assistance to the immigrants tournament living in the country, given the fear that when they go to the stadiums they will be arrested by the immigration authorities.
FIFA already minimized last June the impact of United States immigration policy on its tournaments during the course of the Club World Cup that also developed in this country.
World Cup raffle in Washington
In this way, the US president, Donald Trump, announced that the draw for the 2026 World Cup groups that will be held in his country, in Mexico and Canada, will take place at the Kennedy center in Washington, on December 5 of this year.
Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in the company of the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and members of his government such as the vice president, JD Vance, or the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem.
The World Cup, which will be held in 16 cities in the three countries mentioned between June 11 and July 19, 2026, will be the largest in history by having 48 participating teams, 16 more than in the editions held between 2022 and 1998.
“It is a great honor to bring this world event and this incredible group of people already these incredible athletes, the best athletes in the world, to the cultural center of the capital of our nation,” Trump said with respect to the raffle that will be held in the renowned enclosure of the US capital.
Before the act, Trump himself visited the Kennedy Center to see first -hand the reconditioning works that his administration is executing on the facilities.
“The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest and most complex set of events in the history of sport, and the Kennedy center will provide a phenomenal start,” said the president who stressed that the World Cup is something “very large” or “how to organize several Super Bowl in a short time.”
During the act, Infantino gave Trump the World Cup trophy, stating that it is a trophy that only the “winners” like him and like Leo Messi, who said was the last to have that trophy in his hands in his hands in his hands.
“Taking into account that you are, of course, a winner, you can touch it,” infantino told Trump, who asked if he could stay and suggested that he will keep it in the oval office until the World Cup is celebrated, something he already did with the trophy of the Club World Cup held in the US this summer.
