Somalia's Best Referee Banned From USA Days Before World Cup, Despite Holding Valid Visa
Omar Abdulkadir Artan arrived at Miami International Airport on Saturday with a valid visa. He was set to become the first Somali ever to officiate at a World Cup finals, named Africa’s best referee, selected from 52 officials worldwide. U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained him, searched his belongings, and put him on a plane back. FIFA has now dropped him following the refusal to allow him into the country.
The USA claims he has been rejected for “vetting concerns.” Artan had a valid visa, and was in the country to take part in a tournament that the USA applied to host. There were no valid vetting concerns offered, just the vague excuse.
Somalia is on the Trump regime’s travel ban list. Artan had cleared whatever process that requires, and Border Patrol turned him away at the door anyway, because the door is ultimately discretionary, and discretion in this administration runs in one direction.
This is not an isolated incident. It is the third in a week. On June 5, the Iraqi squad landed at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Border Patrol pulled striker Aymen Hussein and questioned him for seven hours. The team’s official photographer, Talal Salah, was held for ten, his devices seized, then sent back to Baghdad. Iraq is not on the USA’s travel ban.
FIFA confirmed Artan’s removal and said it “is not involved in host country immigration processes,” adding that authorities have told them his status “will not be changed.” This is the same FIFA that awarded Trump its inaugural peace prize last year. It is performing its customary neutrality, which in practice means accepting whatever the host does, even when their own tournament finds itself victim of Trump’s immigration policies.
The moment the Trump regime undertook their indiscriminate abduction and expulsion campaign against foreign nationals in the country, the question of if they should be allowed to host the tournament has been a regular point of conversation for football fans.
The fears presented are now being realised, as FIFA referees and official team photographers are being denied entry into the country, and denied an opportunity to be involved in a historic moment for their own country.
The Trump regime has presented this World Cup as a statement of openness. It suspended visa requirements for visiting fans. It is hosting a global tournament while detaining its star players at the border, expelling its press corps, and turning away its own appointed officials, all without explanation, all without consequence, all in the same week the opening whistle blows.
This is unlikely to be the last serious incident, as a country determined to kick out foreigners welcomes millions of them into the country.