A progressive “fearmongering” campaign ahead of is drawing backlash as one critic accused leftist groups of trying to “sabotage” the U.S. tourist industry by targeting American business owners over their opposition to President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Geoff Freeman, president of the U.S. Travel Association, called “questioning the safety of travelers” to the U.S. a “step too far.” He also called discouraging international visitors from traveling to the U.S. to make a political point about the the “height of absurdity.”
“If we discourage these travelers from coming, travel businesses are going to pay a heavy price, and that’s not just in the 11 [FIFA] host cities around the country, that’s all around the country,” he said.
“We all have policies we disagree with, and there’s a way to express ourselves when we disagree with those policies. But holding the bellman, holding the waitress, holding the small travel business hostage in order to make your political point is extremely disrespectful.”
The New York Times-owned outlet The Athletic reported this week that 120 fan groups and civil society organizations published a travel advisory warning potential World Cup visitors to the U.S. about possible arbitrary detention and inhumane conditions. Groups that backed the warning included Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The groups warned that visitors could face human rights violations in the U.S., including arbitrary denial of entry, risk of detention, invasive social media screening, searches of electronic devices, racial profiling and suppression of free speech. The advisory also warned that immigrants, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals and others are “most vulnerable to serious harm” when traveling within the country due to the “Trump administrations rising authoritarianism and increasing violence,” according to the outlet.
The advisory called on travelers to the U.S. to “exercise caution and have an emergency contingency plan.”
Though it noted concerns about previous World Cups in countries such as Russia and Qatar, The Athletic called it “highly unusual” for such warnings to come from so many civil rights organizations in a host country.
A FIFA spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “as per article 3 of the FIFA Statutes, FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.”
The spokesperson went on that “the development and publication of the FWC2026 Sustainability and Human Rights Strategy, the FWC2026 Human Rights Framework, and the recently updated FIFA Statement on Human Rights Defenders and Media Representatives as well as the establishment of an FWC2026 Human Rights Advisory Group comprised of independent experts and the wide advertisement of the FIFA Human Rights Grievance Mechanism, are all evidence of FIFAs commitment to human rights across all key activities and actors connected to the tournament.”
Fox News Digital reached out to FIFA for comment. The s World Cup Task Force has staunchly denied any such risks to visitors to the U.S.
Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the White House, emphasized to Fox News Digital that “international visitors who legally come to the United States for the World Cup have nothing to worry about.”
While emphasizing that foreign visitors must be “proactive” in preparing their travel documents ahead of time, he dismissed the advisory as “ridiculous scare tactics driven by liberal activist groups and the left-wing media.”
“What make
