Hotel staff and food service workers who keep SoFi stadium functioning say they’ll walk off the job if ICE is present.
By Sasha Abramsky ,
May 28, 2026
Union workers hold signs as they rally outside of SoFi Stadium ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to demand investigations into FIFA’s security and worker accreditation policies, while also calling for protections against immigration enforcement activity and AI-related job displacement at the stadium, on May 18, 2026, in Inglewood, California
.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
As the World Cup nears, Los Angeles’s service workers — the people who staff hotels and keep the restaurants and bars going inside the city’s big stadium — have threatened to go on strike if the tournament becomes hunting grounds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
They have good reason to be worried. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has indicated that it may not routinely check attendees’ immigration status, but it has fudged on the broader issue of ICE presence, saying its agents will be available at soccer games.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress earlier this year that “ICE, specifically homeland security investigations, is a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup.” Newly appointed DHS head Markwayne Mullin has told agents to be prepared to be “out there every day.” Yet, faced with lagging hotel bookings around the country for the World Cup and the risk that international fans will be scared off by reports of preparations for heavy-handed ICE actions, DHS officials have also been trying to assure host cities that they won’t be making arrests at the stadiums.
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Unite Here Local 11, which has had a long run of recent successes in its efforts to unionize hotels, airport concessions, and other parts of LA’s hospitality industry, wants to force the issue. The union’s leadership indicated last week that more than 2,000 workers are prepared to walk off the job at SoFi stadium should ICE agents show up during the World Cup.
“Our members are super-charged about this,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of the local, told Truthout. “The threat to workers’ safety is very real, and people are going to have to make decisions about what they’re going to do.” Petersen says several of the union’s members have been detained during anti-immigration surges over the past year; while union lawyers have largely been successful in securing their release, the fear amongst immigrant workers — including those with documentation — is pervasive.
Petersen didn’t want to draw attention to individual cases, but he told Truthout that just last week, a Unite Here member walked out of immigration court with his wife and their two young children, only to immediately be abducted by ICE. And recently, Petersen said workers at a Culver City hotel temporarily walked off their jobs when they found out that ICE agents were renting rooms inside. According to Petersen, the agents were gone, and the workers returned to their positions over the next days. (He was unwilling to name the hotel as, he said, he didn’t want to draw attention to the workers there.)
Seventy-year-old Yolanda Fierro, who has worked at SoFi stadium since it opened in 2020, serving as a “suites runner” — bringing food and drink to attendees who have tickets to watch matches in the suites — fears ICE will bring its racial profiling tactics into the World Cup.
“Why are you going to come to a stadium and terrorize our employees who have been trying to do their jobs since day one? And what about all the fans from all over the world? Are you going to target them? So, no, we don’t need ICE there. ICE needs to go to the desert and melt.”
The knowledge that some of their colleagues have already been targeted by ICE is fueling some of the anger from stadium workers at the agency. “If ICE showed up, we would call a strike,” Fierro says angrily. “And if we’re not there, who’s going to man the stadium, do all the other stuff?”
The union local is seeking a commitment from FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, that it won’t cooperate with ICE. The union has also informed hotels and other venues connected to the World Cup that the presence of ICE agents would constitute “unusually dangerous conditions” and, according to the terms of its workers’ collective bargaining agreement, would trigger the workers’ right to refuse to work in such conditions. That could, potentially, lead to work stoppages beyond the SoFi stadium itself as the tournament gets underway.
Unite Here Local 11’s position against ICE being embedded in stadiums around the country comes after Amnesty International, the ACLU, and more than 120 other human rights organizations published a joint travel advisory warning World Cup visitors from overseas that they risk falling victims to the Trump administration’s “draconian immigration and anti-human rights agenda.”
For SoFi stadium workers such as 61-year-old LA native Eva Miles, who has worked as a bartender at the stadium since it opened, the preparations for World Cup have brought a mix of exhilaration and fear. She is happy that she can be at SoFi for the opening match, in which the U.S. plays Paraguay, on June 12. But she is worried that the match will turn into an anti-immigrant circus. “I’m hoping we can keep them out,” she said of ICE. “Because there’s no room for them to come in. It’s a game and it’s where everyone should have a fun time and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about getting arrested for things they have not done.”
Miles anticipates that the energy among the fans will already be intense as the tournament gets underway. “We don’t need ICE to make it any crazier,” she said. “But what can you do if they force their way in there?” Then, she answered her own question. “Yes,” she said when asked if she would strike. “I would do it. We’re rallying. We are all for keeping them out.”
As the World Cup nears, Los Angeles’s service workers — the people who staff hotels and keep the restaurants and bars going inside the city’s big stadium — have threatened to go on strike if the tournament becomes hunting grounds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
They have good reason to be worried. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has indicated that it may not routinely check attendees’ immigration status, but it has fudged on the broader issue of ICE presence, saying its agents will be available at soccer games.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress earlier this year that “ICE, specifically homeland security investigations, is a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup.” Newly appointed DHS head Markwayne Mullin has told agents to be prepared to be “out there every day.” Yet, faced with lagging hotel bookings around the country for the World Cup and the risk that international fans will be scared off by reports of preparations for heavy-handed ICE actions, DHS officials have also been trying to assure host cities that they won’t be making arrests at the stadiums.
Uncompromised, uncompromising news
Get reliable, independent news and commentary delivered to your inbox every day.
Email*
Unite Here Local 11, which has had a long run of recent successes in its efforts to unionize hotels, airport concessions, and other parts of LA’s hospitality industry, wants to force the issue. The union’s leadership indicated last week that more than 2,000 workers are prepared to walk off the job at SoFi stadium should ICE agents show up during the World Cup.
“Our members are super-charged about this,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of the local, told Truthout. “The threat to workers’ safety is very real, and people are going to have to make decisions about what they’re going to do.” Petersen says several of the union’s members have been detained during anti-immigration surges over the past year; while union lawyers have largely been successful in securing their release, the fear amongst immigrant workers — including those with documentation — is pervasive.
Petersen didn’t want to draw attention to individual cases, but he told Truthout that just last week, a Unite Here member walked out of immigration court with his wife and their two young children, only to immediately be abducted by ICE. And recently, Petersen said workers at a Culver City hotel temporarily walked off their jobs when they found out that ICE agents were renting rooms inside. According to Petersen, the agents were gone, and the workers returned to their positions over the next days. (He was unwilling to name the hotel as, he said, he didn’t want to draw attention to the workers there.)
Seventy-year-old Yolanda Fierro, who has worked at SoFi stadium since it opened in 2020, serving as a “suites runner” — bringing food and drink to attendees who have tickets to watch matches in the suites — fears ICE will bring its racial profiling tactics into the World Cup.
“Why are you going to come to a stadium and terrorize our employees who have been trying to do their jobs since day one? And what about all the fans from all over the world? Are you going to target them? So, no, we don’t need ICE there. ICE needs to go to the desert and melt.”
The knowledge that some of their colleagues have already been targeted by ICE is fueling some of the anger from stadium workers at the agency. “If ICE showed up, we would call a strike,” Fierro says angrily. “And if we’re not there, who’s going to man the stadium, do all the other stuff?”
The union local is seeking a commitment from FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, that it won’t cooperate with ICE. The union has also informed hotels and other venues connected to the World Cup that the presence of ICE agents would constitute “unusually dangerous conditions” and, according to the terms of its workers’ collective bargaining agreement, would trigger the workers’ right to refuse to work in such conditions. That could, potentially, lead to work stoppages beyond the SoFi stadium itself as the tournament gets underway.
Unite Here Local 11’s position against ICE being embedded in stadiums around the country comes after Amnesty International, the ACLU, and more than 120 other human rights organizations published a joint travel advisory warning World Cup visitors from overseas that they risk falling victims to the Trump administration’s “draconian immigration and anti-human rights agenda.”
For SoFi stadium workers such as 61-year-old LA native Eva Miles, who has worked as a bartender at the stadium since it opened, the preparations for World Cup have brought a mix of exhilaration and fear. She is happy that she can be at SoFi for the opening match, in which the U.S. plays Paraguay, on June 12. But she is worried that the match will turn into an anti-immigrant circus. “I’m hoping we can keep them out,” she said of ICE. “Because there’s no room for them to come in. It’s a game and it’s where everyone should have a fun time and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about getting arrested for things they have not done.”
Miles anticipates that the energy among the fans will already be intense as the tournament gets underway. “We don’t need ICE to make it any crazier,” she said. “But what can you do if they force their way in there?” Then, she answered her own question. “Yes,” she said when asked if she would strike. “I would do it. We’re rallying. We are all for keeping them out.”
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