Human Rights Watch published '2026 World Cup: Tournament Will Kick Off in Climate of Fear' on Monday 27 April 2026, three days before the Vancouver Congress 1. The report extends the host-city audit HRW released on 10 April , which had counted 167,000 ICE arrests across 11 host-city regions, averaging roughly 15,000 per host-city area over fifteen months, and demanded action plans by Monday 11 May.
The 27 April report adds named incidents. Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist, was arrested in Atlanta in June 2025 while filming a protest and subsequently deported to El Salvador by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US federal immigration enforcement agency). Estefany Rodriguez, a journalist, was detained in March 2026 while covering ICE raids without a warrant being presented. Mexico, the report records, enacted a new law granting authorities 'virtually unlimited power' to access citizen information without judicial authorisation 2.
The report also documents a December 2025 sequence FIFA had not previously addressed: the federation awarded Donald Trump the first FIFA Peace Prize that month, while declining HRW's call for an 'ICE Truce' across the host cities . As of 1 May, all but one of the 16 US host city committees has either failed to publish a human rights action plan or produced one HRW judges inadequate. If 11 May arrives unmet, the next 31 days to kickoff begin with formal non-compliance across 15 of 16 cities, against a published deadline FIFA has chosen not to police.
