As thousands of fans poured into the stadium for Arlington's first FIFA World Cup game Sunday, Rick Majumdar stood on a corner outside the venue, speaking into a microphone: "ICE out of the World Cup."
The Arlington resident said he wanted to raise awareness about the potential presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arlington as the city welcomed soccer fans from across the world for the match between the Netherlands and Japan.
Majumdar, 33, was one of about a dozen demonstrators outside AT&T Stadium — renamed Dallas Stadium during the World Cup — as part of a protest organized by the Dallas chapter of National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, or NAARPR.
As fans trickled past in the humid heat, demonstrators gathered at the corner of North Collins Street and East Randol Mill Road, chanting in Spanish: "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido" — "The people united will never be defeated."
The group wanted to show visitors and residents they don't accept ICE's presence at the World Cup or throughout North Texas, Majumdar said.
"We don't need ICE. We've seen how repressive they've been to people," Majumdar said.
Federal officials said they are not planning large-scale immigration enforcement actions during World Cup games. However, the Trump administration's emphasis on curbing undocumented immigration, as well as local examples of immigrants detained by ICE, have driven anxiety and unrest around whether ICE would patrol Arlington streets.
At a news conference in Dallas this month, federal authorities did not directly answer whether they were planning immigration enforcement during Arlington's nine World Cup matches.
"FIFA wants it to be a fantastic event for the fans from all over the world. If someone is here and (has) gone through the legal process to be here to see the games, there's nothing … to be worried about when it comes to any additional expectation," said Christina Foley, the U.S. Secret Service agent in charge of the Dallas field office and the region's federal World Cup coordinator.
A spokesperson for the Arlington Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the department arrested protestors Sunday or were aware of any ICE detainments.
Immigration enforcement has already made an impact at World Cup matches outside of Texas, due to the Trump administration's 39-country travel ban. World Cup referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, from Somalia, was deemed inadmissible because of "vetting concerns" and was denied entry into the U.S. at the Miami International Airport.
Team Iraq faced hours of questioning at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, with a team photographer denied entry due to "vetting concerns." Team Iran relocated its base camp from Arizona to Mexico after being denied an overnight stay and visas. The U.S. is currently in conflict with Iran.
Dallas resident Xavier Velasquez, 35, said he wanted to remind people "ICE is still here." After the fatal ICE shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota, Velasquez helped the NAARPR organize anti-ICE demonstrations that drew thousands of supporters, he said.
"Ever since then, we've kind of seen the awareness kind of slowly coming down, and so we felt like coming to something big like this would kind of put it back into the public's awareness," Velasquez said.
Arlington resident Ya'akub Ira Vijandre was detained by ICE in October and has been held in ICE custody since. Friends and family of Vijandre have spoken out in support of his release at multiple Arlington City Council meetings, but he remains detained at the Folkston Detention Center in Georgia.
Local stories of immigrant detainments hit close to home for Velasquez, who said his mother was formerly an undocumented immigrant.
"Being children of immigrants, we see our families in that because that could be our grandma, it could be our uncle, it could be our dad or mom," Velasquez said.
Down the street from Velasquez, Esperanza Tomeo and Anua Whitlock — members of the Brown Berets DFW, a Chicano advocacy group — led a small demonstration between the stadium and the nearby Walmart Supercenter on East Randol Mill Road. As the group chanted toward the stadium, Tejano music played from their speakers.
Tomeo, a Dallas resident, said she wanted to educate international visitors about ICE in North Texas.
"The world needs to see what's going on. At this time, everybody's being censored," Tomeo said. "It's our responsibility and our obligation to be able to let the world know what's going on."
Alongside the ICE demonstration at North Collins Street and East Randol Mill Road, Pastor Joel Haynes of Arlington's Trinity Baptist Church preached into a microphone headset as congregants from the church handed passersby flyers that read: "Don't miss the goal that matters."
Sharing that his wife immigrated from Mexico as a child, Haynes was clear that he wasn't trying to "work against" the anti-ICE demonstrators. However, he emphasized that "our efforts are best used going to the source of the problem, which is the sin that's in every heart."
"Truly, if people get saved, there wouldn't be a need for a demonstration like this," he added.
Lili Macedo, 35, held a sign reading "Hands off our constitutional and civil rights." The sign featured a photo of Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, his image circled and crossed out. "Stephen Miller, you're fired," was written underneath the image.
Macedo said she felt the need to come out to properly support vulnerable communities who could be targeted by ICE. The agency's presence directly challenged what the global sporting event represents, she said.
"That's what the World Cup is about: uniting the world, bringing different countries together, different people."
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
Bianca Rodriguez-Mora is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at bianca@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright 2026 KERA News