Concacaf in 'close communication' with LA authorities over Gold Cup
Concacaf says it "remains in close and ongoing communication with local authorities, host venues, and the participating national teams regarding the evolving situation" in Los Angeles before the opening match of the Gold Cup in the city on Saturday.
The governing body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean is preparing for Mexico versus Dominican Republic at the SoFi Stadium.
LA has seen a fifth day of protests and hundreds of arrests over US President Donald Trump's immigration raids.
On Sunday, the city is also due to host the first of the six Club World Cup matches to be played at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena over the next fortnight, with Paris St-Germain facing Atletico Madrid.
Fans association Football Supporters Europe (FSE) told BBC Sport it is "deeply concerned".
Concacaf said: "The safety and wellbeing of all participants, fans, and stakeholders is the Confederation's highest priority.
"We will continue to actively monitor developments as we work towards delivering a world-class tournament that highlights the best of our sport in a safe, inclusive, and enjoyable environment for all."
The Gold Cup is Concacaf's top competition for national teams.
The Mexico team has already changed its hotel in LA because of safety concerns amid the disturbances, according to the Associated Press.
LA mayor Karen Bass declared an overnight curfew within a relatively small area of the city's downtown district, saying businesses were being vandalised and looted.
Meanwhile, the immigration raids that triggered the protests last Friday have continued, with deployed National Guard troops now protecting border control agents on enforcement operations.
An overnight curfew is in force after violence in downtown LA. Elsewhere, much of the protest activity has been peaceful. Demonstrations have been confined to relatively small pockets of LA, while also spreading to other US cities.
Trump's row with state officials ramped up after he deployed troops to LA. The president has now vowed to "liberate" the city, but has been accused by California Governor Gavin Newsom of an "assault" on democracy.
On Tuesday, Trump defended his decision to send 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines, saying it was to prevent the city being "conquered by a foreign enemy".
However, European fans group FSE said: "The current policing approach in the US is wholly unfit for international sporting events.
"The continued use of excessive force against peaceful protestors is especially alarming. Fifa must act now.
"It has a responsibility to use its influence to ensure that the human rights and civil liberties of all attending fans are protected and respected."
It also criticised Trump's immigration policies, claiming they "pose a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of visiting fans". As well as PSG and Atletico Madrid, LA is due to host Inter Milan, who play Mexican team CF Monterrey at the Rose Bowl next week.
Last week Trump announced a travel ban which places full restrictions on citizens of 12 countries entering the United States, as well as partial constraints on seven others as part of an immigration crackdown he says is needed over security threats.
What will Trump travel ban mean for sport?
Trump travel ban barring citizens from 12 countries takes effect
The order contains an exemption for participants in major sports events such as the 2026 Fifa World Cup and 2028 LA Games. However, it is not clear if the Gold Cup and Club World Cup are covered by the exemption.
Those 12 countries include Haiti, who play Saudi Arabia in the Gold Cup on Monday.
Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance, said: "If sport governing bodies turn a blind eye to the escalating rights violations in the US, sporting events risk not only reflecting those abuses - but actively deepening them.
"In LA, where major football matches are about to take place, protesters are being criminalised, journalists unlawfully targeted, and immigrant communities subjected to enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.
"It is the duty of sporting event organisers to conduct thorough and ongoing human rights risk assessments and take immediate, concrete action to ensure that human rights won't be sacrificed for the sake of the game."
Fifa, Concacaf and the LA authorities have been approached for comment.
The demonstrations began on Friday after it emerged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were carrying out raids in areas of the city with prominent Latino populations.
Raids have stepped up after Trump returned to the White House and pledged to crack down on illegal immigration.
The BBC's US partner, CBS News, reported that recent operations took place in the Westlake district as well as in Paramount, south of LA - where the population is more than 82% Hispanic.
There were also reports of an ICE raid at a Home Depot shop in Paramount, which officials told the BBC were false.
ICE later told CBS that 44 unauthorised immigrants were arrested in a single operation at a job site on Friday. Another 77 were also arrested in the greater LA area on the same day.
The protests have been limited to certain areas of the city.
Downtown LA has been declared an "unlawful assembly" area by police, and the mayor has imposed an overnight curfew in a zone of about one square kilometre after days of clashes.
In this area, protesters have been accused of attacking or looting buildings, setting cars on fire and blocking roads. Law enforcement officers in riot gear have responded with flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and other non-lethal tactics.
The downtown Federal Building has been a particular flashpoint after it emerged that ICE detainees were allegedly being held there. ICE accused "over 1,000 rioters" of surrounding and attacking the building on Saturday.
A Home Depot shop in Paramount, roughly 20 miles (32 km) south of downtown LA, has been another site of confrontation between authorities and protesters.
Across the city, at least 338 people have been arrested since Friday, according to the latest figures provided by the city's police chief, Jim McDonnell, on Tuesday evening.
There have been no deaths reported in the city linked to the protests.
Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast
Get football news sent straight to your phone
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
30 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump moves to merge wildland firefighting into single force, despite ex-officials warning of chaos
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered government agencies to consolidate their wildland firefighting into a single program, despite warnings from former federal officials that it could be costly and increase the risk of catastrophic blazes. The order aims to centralize firefighting efforts now split among five agencies and two Cabinet departments. Trump's proposed budget for next year calls for the creation of a new Federal Wildland Fire Service under the U.S. Interior Department. That would mean shifting thousands of personnel from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service — where most federal firefighters now work — with fire season already underway . The administration has not disclosed how much the change could cost or save. Trump in his order cited the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January as highlighting a need for a quicker response to wildfires. 'Wildfires threaten every region, yet many local government entities continue to disregard commonsense preventive measures,' the order said. The Trump administration in its first months temporarily cut off money for wildfire prevention work and reduced the ranks of federal government firefighters through layoffs and retirement. The order makes no mention of climate change, which Trump has downplayed even as warming temperatures help stoke bigger and more destructive wildfires that churn out massive amounts of harmful pollution. More than 65,000 wildfires across the U.S. burned almost 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) last year. Organizations representing firefighters and former Forest Service officials say it would be costly to restructure firefighting efforts and cause major disruptions in the midst of fire season. A group that includes several former Forest Service chiefs said in a recent letter to lawmakers that consolidation of firefighting work could 'actually increase the likelihood of more large catastrophic fires, putting more communities, firefighters and resources at risk.' Another destructive fire season is expected this year, driven by above-normal temperatures for most of the country, according to federal officials. A prior proposal to merge the Forest Service and Interior to improve firefighting was found to have significant drawbacks by the Congressional Research Service in a 2008 report. But the idea more recently got bipartisan support, with California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla and Montana Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy sponsoring legislation that is similar to Trump's plan. Before his election last year, Sheehy founded an aerial firefighting company that relies heavily on federal contracts. In a separate action aimed at wildfires, the Trump administration last month rolled back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half U.S. national forests. The emergency designation covers 176,000 square miles (455,000 square kilometers) of terrain primarily in the West but also in the South, around the Great Lakes and in New England. Most of those forests are considered to have high wildfire risk, and many are in decline because of insects and disease .
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Alex Padilla Tears Up Recounting His Kristi Noem Detainment on MSNBC: ‘It's All BS Coming From Trump'
California Sen. Alex Padilla appeared on MSNBC's 'The Beat' for his first interview following his forceful removal from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's Los Angeles press conference Thursday, giving correspondents a glimpse behind the viral moment. Padilla was forcefully removed by FBI agents and other plainclothes officials from the event after attempting to ask Noem a question about the Trump administrations ICE actions in L.A. Video footage shows the senator being pushed out of the room, pinned to the ground and being placed in handcuffs. NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff pressed the senator on what made him particularly emotional speaking with the press pool outside after the incident. The Padilla came from a family of day laborers in the San Fernando Valley, and said this administration's target on immigrants, especially in L.A., feels personal. 'I understand their plight. I understand their struggle. I understand their sacrifice to just find the American dream, a good opportunity, maybe a good job, the ability to raise a family, and have the next generation have it a little bit better than you did,' Padilla told MSNBC with tears in his eyes. 'All the talk about immigration, you know, the — the misinformation, disinformation about, you know, invasions and insurrections, it's all B.S. coming from Trump.' Soboroff noted that the senator was raised by a father, who was a short order cook, and a mother, who was a housekeeper. After studying at MIT, Padilla returned to his hometown to rise the ranks in the public sector and serve his community. He told MSNBC that the Trump administration's targeting of immigrants is misguided. 'If all they were going to do is target violent, dangerous criminals, true threats to our national security, that'd be one thing. Nobody has a disagreement there,' he said. 'What's happening in practice is so many — yes, undocumented — immigrants, but who are otherwise law-abiding, peaceful and hardworking, to think this administration changed policy for federal agents to enter schools, houses of worship, let alone workplaces? If immigrants are that bad, why is that where you're looking for them?' The senator also responded to Noem's claims that he 'lunged' at her during the press conference. 'That's ridiculous. It's a lie, but par for the course for this administration, right?' he said. Padilla was down the hall in the federal building waiting for a scheduled briefing that had been pushed back because of the Secretary of Homeland Security's press conference, he said. The senator said he was escorted into the conference room to listen, but he had to speak up. 'At one point, it was just too much to take,' he said. 'This notion that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have to come in and rescue the people of Los Angeles from Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass? It was too much. And so I spoke up. I introduced myself and said I had a question.' Padilla also told Soboroff and MSNBC host Ari Melber that he had an opportunity to speak with Noem, but he did not get an answer to his question or an apology. 'If this can happen to a United States senator for having the audacity to ask a question of the secretary of homeland security,' he explained, 'then just imagine what can happen to anybody in the country.' Watch the full interview below: The post Alex Padilla Tears Up Recounting His Kristi Noem Detainment on MSNBC: 'It's All BS Coming From Trump' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Judge invokes monarchy talk while mulling Trump's National Guard deployment
A federal judge warned at a Thursday hearing that accepting the Trump administration's assertion he has no authority to review the president's National Guard deployment in Los Angeles is a slippery slope. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he hoped to rule later in the day on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) request to immediately restrict the troops' power on the ground, suggesting federal law at minimum required President Trump to alert the governor. The judge repeatedly emphasized that Trump is exercising presidential authority — not a king's — and the role comes with limitations. 'That's the difference between a constitutional government and King George,' Breyer said. 'It's not that a leader can simply say something and then it becomes it. It's a question of is a leader, a president or the governor, following the law as set forth in both the Constitution and statutes,' he continued. 'That's what a president, a governor or any leader must act under. Otherwise, they become something other than a constitutional officer.' Breyer seemed willing to agree with Newsom that Trump's deployment was legally defective, but it's still a question as to whether the judge will enjoin the president's directive or give the administration a chance to institute it the proper way. At the same time, Breyer appeared skeptical of blocking at this stage the 700 Marines sent to assist the several thousand guard members deployed. The Trump administration argues Breyer has no authority to review Trump's deployment of the National Guard because it is in the president's sole discretion. Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate argued that Trump was not required to seek approval from Newsom in mobilizing the guard, calling the governor 'merely a conduit.' The president does not have to call up a governor and 'invite them to Camp David' for a negotiation summit to call up the National Guard in their state, he said. 'There is one commander in chief of the armed forces, and when the president makes a decision, the states are subservient to the president's decision,' Shumate said. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) contend that Trump was required to receive Newsom's consent before deploying the National Guard. 'They suggest, your honor, that there are no guardrails,' Nicholas Green, a lawyer for the state, said. Amid the legal battle, Trump said Thursday that he 'doesn't feel like a king.' He was responding to questions about 'No Kings' demonstrations expected around the country this weekend, which are set to coincide with a military parade marking the U.S. Army's 250th birthday. 'I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,' Trump said. Breyer during the hearing kept returning to monarchy talk, trying to determine how he could side with Trump without giving him unchecked power. 'What makes America great, different, is our Constitution and our robust discussion of views of the citizens,' the judge said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
