Immigration raids leave Mexico soccer fans on edge at Gold Cup

They played a soccer game at SoFi Stadium on Saturday.

Not that many people really cared.

Mexico won, beating the Dominican Republic 3-2 in the first game of the monthlong CONCACAF Gold Cup. Yet even the team’s biggest fans found it hard to celebrate given what was going on just a dozen miles away, where hundreds of people protested in front of police, National Guard troops and U.S. Marines during the eighth day of protests over federal immigration raids aimed at the Latino community.

“When the Mexican team plays, it’s a celebration, right? But no, it wasn’t,” said El Coronel, the nom de guerre of the leader of “Pancho Villa’s Army,” the Mexican national team’s largest supporter group in the U.S. — a group started by Sergio Tristan, a Texas attorney and National Guard colonel who spent 30 months on the frontlines in Iraq as a U.S. Army infantryman.

They couldn’t celebrate because many in Southern California’s Latino community — citizens and immigrants, documented and not — were being targeted by ICE agents. So they stayed away from Saturday’s game, believing it would be a target-rich environment for ICE.

In response, Pancho Villa’s Army confined their band to their barracks and canceled their traditionally joyful pregame tailgate party Saturday. Cielto Lindo and Patrones de México, the national team’s two other major supporters’ groups in the U.S., did the same.

“We don’t feel right celebrating with music and food [when] our brothers and sisters and cousins and mothers are all suffering from what’s happening,” said El Coronel, who attended the game as a civilian, wearing a blue hoodie rather than a national team jersey. “While others are suffering, it just doesn’t seem right.”

Last week the Department of Homeland Security announced on social media that federal agents would provide security for the FIFA Club World Cup, which also kicked off Saturday in South Florida, raising concerns that fans attending soccer matches could be targeted in immigration sweeps. The security presence at SoFi Stadium was normal, however, visibly limited to uniformed police officers and the ubiquitous yellow-clad workers from Contemporary Services Corp., a private company.

“Everything,” El Coronel said, heaving a sigh of relief, “is calm.”

But fears over what could happen left most of SoFi’s top deck empty and the lower bowl just half-filled. Mexico’s last three games at SoFi drew an average attendance of more than 64,000; Saturday’s drew an often-subdued crowd announced at 54,309.

Carmen Garcia of El Monte came, but reluctantly. She bought a $350 VIP ticket a month ago but had second thoughts once the ICE raids began.

“I tried to get a refund,” she said in Spanish. “They said no. So we are here, but we are not happy.”

One of those who didn’t enter was Daniel Fuentes of Los Angeles, who instead gathered with a group of anti-ICE protesters across the street from the stadium a couple of hours before the game.

“I am a soccer fan but today we are not for soccer,” he said in Spanish. “It is not fair what Donald Trump is doing, lifting up our working people saying they are criminals and it is not so.

“They are raging against us Latinos, saying we are the worst.”

The Mexican soccer federation generates about a third of its annual income in the U.S. through matchday income, TV rights and sponsorship deals driven by the large Mexican and Mexican-American fan base in the country. The team’s U.S. tour ahead of the 2022 World Cup, for example, reportedly generated $31 million.

Fans tailgate in the SoFi Stadium parking lot before a CONCACAF Gold Cup match between Mexico and the Dominican Republic on Saturday.

(Wally Skalij / Associated Press)

But while those fans have long backed the team, given the chance to return the favor, the team decided to stay silent. The media were told coach Javier Aguirre — the Mexican-born son of Spanish immigrants — and his players would only answer questions about soccer.

The team broke its silence after the game.

“The best way to support them,” Aguirre said in Spanish “is by giving them more than just victory, an effort. People identify with their flag, with their anthem, with their players who give it their all. That’s what concerns us.

“We are football professionals, and it’s the best way to represent our fellow countrymen in this moment — a complicated moment. We have to do our part on the field. Today, beyond the result, people are leaving happy with what they saw. They didn’t see apathy, they didn’t see discouragement, they didn’t see a team limping along. They saw a competitive team. That’s the best way to repay them for the support they gave us.”

Former Galaxy defender Julian Araujo, the son of once-undocumented Mexican immigrants, said he’s been following the news from afar.

“Obviously, with my parents’ background, it’s hard to and it’s sad to see,” said Araujo, who plays for Bournemouth in the English Premier League. “I don’t know what to say. We all know what’s going on. It’s sad. I wish things could change. I hope things can have a quick turnaround. I’m here to support however I can.

“I wake up to things that I see. And obviously it’s things that I don’t want to see. It’s definitely something that needs to that needs to change.”

Mexico, the reigning Gold Cup champion, started slowly in opening its defense of its title in the biennial 16-team tournament. The Dominican Republic, ranked 139th in the world and playing in the confederation championship for the first time, frustrated “El Tri” for most of the first half before an Edson Alvarez header put Mexico ahead to stay a minute before the intermission.

Raúl Jiménez brought the crowd out of its stupor less than two minutes into the second half, chasing a through ball from Santiago Giménez into the penalty area, then finishing with his right foot from the edge of the six-yard box to double the lead.

Peter González halved the deficit for the Dominican Republic in the 51st minute before Mexico’s César Montes and the Dominican’s Edison Azcona traded scores 14 minutes apart.

Montes’ goal came first, on a header that ricocheted off a couple of players before one-hopping its way just inside the left goalpost in the 53rd minute. It was originally credited to Alvarez, which would have given him his first brace with the national team. Instead he settled for the assist.

Azcona answered with a right-footed shot from the left wing that bounced off a pair of Mexican defenders and over goalkeeper Luis Malagon.

The teams move on to Arlington, Texas, for their second group-play games Wednesday, with Mexico facing Suriname and the Dominican Republic playing Costa Rica. The U.S. opened its Gold Cup schedule Sunday in San José against Trinidad and Tobago.

Staff writer Eduard Cauich contributed to this story.