AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go right now to Philadelphia to Nelini Stamp, director of mass audience engagement for Working Families Power, with the Our Copa campaign.

Nelini, thanks so much for joining us. So, you have this World Cup set to be the largest sporting event in North American history. At the same time, you have this massive Trump immigrant crackdown. If you can explain to us what Our CopA, what Working Families Power is calling for, and what you understand the agreement of ICE’s presence around the stadium around the United States is right now?

NELINI STAMP: Yes. Well, thank you for having me.

Our Copa is a joint initiative from Working Families Power and Mijente Support Committee. And we have one goal, is to keep the game beautiful. It is so important. This year, we have had so much issues with ICE. And we fundamentally believe that football unites us, while ICE is dividing us. Folks have said it before, that this is one of the most expensive World Cups. We need to keep it accessible and keep it within our communities. So, what we’re doing is making sure that people have safe places to gather, because joy is not a luxury. Joy is how a lot of our communities survive. So, having safe watch parties. We’re having free football clinics and soccer tournaments for people to actually enjoy in safety.

There has been a lot of cases of ICE going to soccer fields, going to baseball fields, going where sporting events are happening, and snatching up children, snatching up communities. They’ve been inside of schools, where we know — and, you know, in Minnesota, they took Liam Ramos. And this is something that a lot of people are fearing. They’re fearing not just ICE presence at stadiums, which, look, in an international tournament, there are a lot of — you know, there are a lot of federal officials, especially from the Department of Homeland Security. But people are really, really afraid of them having raids, that ICE will go and raid communities where people are watching and gathering together. In most countries in the world, people just put up — and you just see it all over, you know, the city of New York last night. People are putting up, you know, TVs to just watch it collectively. People will just say, “Here, come. And come and see this in our village, in our town.” And people are afraid to do that in the United States, because Donald Trump and Andrew Giuliani, who is his World Cup czar, is making it about them. They’re making it a strongman show. And I fundamentally believe they do not want immigrant communities and communities who enjoy the beautiful game, like myself, who has been a fan of — I’m wearing the 1994 U.S. men’s national team World Cup kit. I was a fan of Tab Ramos then, who is a Latino immigrant. And they don’t want us to have joy in this moment.

And so, right now what we’re seeing is just a high level of tensions. Last week — or, two weeks ago, two weeks before today’s start of the World Cup, the director of Homeland Security threatened to pull Customs and Border Patrol officers from Newark Airport because of what’s happening at Delaney Hall, which is eight miles away from what they’re calling the New York New Jersey Stadium, which is where — which the World Cup final will be played upon, played at. So, when we’re — you know, our initiative with Our Copa is to just make sure that people can enjoy and have a sense of joy and community and enjoy this. And we have two clear demands. We want to stop all ICE raids during this entirety of the World Cup during the next 39 days. And we want the travel ban lifted on the countries who are participating in the World Cup, on Haiti, on Côte d’Ivoire, on Senegal — Ivory Coast, on Senegal and Haiti, because their fans deserve to be here. That is not a political move; it’s a human move.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Nelini, could you also talk about the fact that some cities in the U.S. — Atlanta, Seattle and L.A. — the police have said they will not cooperate with ICE? What is the position of other cities?

NELINI STAMP: Yes. Yes, a lot of — I mean, look, a lot of folks have said that they won’t cooperate with ICE. We have also seen in New York, you know, folks have said that they won’t cooperate with ICE. I think a lot of different cities are saying they will not cooperate with ICE. Unfortunately, there are cities who have a long history of ICE cooperation — in Houston with 287(g) programs, in Kansas City.

And so, it is something that we are making sure that every person who is here, who lives here, who celebrates and loves the beautiful game, have Know Your Rights tools. We have Know Your Rights tools on OurCopa.com. There has been lots of other programs that are just making sure — Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, is doing his own Know Your Rights program in the city to make sure that anybody who’s in New York or New Jersey has what they need to be — you know, to have Know Your Rights. So, what I love about this is that, you know, communities are answering to keep each other safe. And we will keep each other safe as much as possible during these games.

But the story should also be — I think a lot of the story is about Donald Trump, and he wants it to be about him. We have to also make it about how communities are welcoming these teams. Here in Philadelphia, Ivory Coast played a free game to the public, so that their fans could see. And their fans can’t come from their home country. And it was packed at the Philadelphia Union Stadium. Folks in Virginia, Ghana — you know, the diaspora from Ghana welcomed the Ghana team with traditional instruments. People in New Jersey are welcoming Morocco and supporting them. We have to — we have to also show that people are celebrating right now.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Nelini Stamp is director of mass audience engagement for Working Families Power. Thank you so much for joining us. She’s also with Our Copa campaign. José Luis Granados Ceja covers Latin America for Drop Site News. And Jules Boykoff, author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine. Thank you all for joining us.

Coming up, will Congress reauthorize a controversial part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires on Friday.

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NERMEEN SHAIKH: “Fascists in Our Midst” by Montreal musician Paul Cargnello.