The Brief

L.A. taxpayers have been paying for more than 250 empty apartments as part of an initiative Mayor Karen Bass introduced years ago to make housing readily available to unhoused people, according to official data reviewed by LAist. That’s just over a third of the units in the strategy, known as master leasing, the data show.

The vacancies have been tying up tax dollars that could house hundreds of people in other approaches, according to official financial data.

Under master leasing, a local agency uses tax dollars to rent entire apartment buildings, then subleases individual units to unhoused people whose rent is paid with tax-funded subsidies and grants. But local policies have restricted who can move in, leaving units vacant despite taxpayers continuing to pay for them.

Some level of vacancies are expected in long-term housing programs for unhoused people, due in part to repairs and an often-lengthy paperwork process to move in. But at one-third of units, the vacancy rate for L.A.’s master leasing program is far higher than in other programs. It’s nearly four times as high as the 9% vacancy rate for San Francisco’s long-term housing for unhoused people.

“It is unfortunate that LAHSA couldn't get this to work,” Bass spokesperson Ilanna Morales said in a statement. She added that it’s “now critical” that an upcoming transition to the county of services at the sites “is focused on preventing people from returning to the street.”

Bass appoints half of LAHSA’s governing commission, which she has served on since appointing herself to it in October 2023. She is the only elected official on the commission.

In a statement, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath called the situation a “moral failure.”

“Apartments sitting empty and taxpayer dollars wasted while nearly 70,000 people live without safe shelter is financially reckless and a moral failure,” said Horvath, who led the charge a year ago to have the county pull its funds from LAHSA over accountability concerns. “This is exactly why Los Angeles County is leaving LAHSA. Angelenos are begging for accountability, transparency, and financial oversight, and the County is delivering that.”

LAist’s review of official records and questions to officials found:

• For over a year, the L.A. Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has been master leasing 14 buildings with a total of 758 housing units, according to a presentation prepared by LAHSA management. 
• Nearly a third of those units — 226 altogether — did not have anyone living in them as of April, according to the presentation. Taxpayers pay for all units regardless of how many are vacant.
• Vacancies increased by mid-May to 259 units — just over a third of the total — according to figures from the agency.

LAHSA officials said the high vacancy rate is due to local policies restricting master leased apartments to people who have taxpayer-funded subsidies, which have been cut back by the state. A new person only goes in if they have a taxpayer-funded housing subsidy and choose to move there, they said, and one of the most successful subsidy programs was paused a year ago due to the state cuts.

“Master-leased units will only see new occupants if the new [subsidy] holders wish to move into a master-leased unit,” said a statement provided by Ahmad Chapman, a spokesperson for LAHSA Interim CEO Gita O’Neill’s administration.

LAHSA pays an average of about $3,400 monthly for each master leased, single-person apartment — about half of which is for rent — according to figures in the presentation. At that rate, the vacant units would be costing taxpayers about $880,000 a month in homelessness funds, or $10.6 million a year.

Each of the 14 master leases is for five-year terms, with very limited options for LAHSA to terminate early. All but one of the properties is in the city of L.A., mostly in south L.A. and near downtown.

In the meantime, an agency report shows officials are using taxpayer funds to pay for vacant units — funds that could otherwise be housing hundreds of people. LAHSA has to pay for the leases, security and other costs regardless of how many units are occupied.

At the county’s direction, LAHSA now plans to issue termination notices for seven of the master leases, according to a LAHSA statement. “The notices will be issued prior to June 30 and take effect at various times throughout the upcoming fiscal year, depending on the specific agreement,” the statement added.

The five-year lease deals give LAHSA only narrow options to cancel early:

• They can cancel at the three-year mark
• If LAHSA’s funding is terminated, the agency has five days to notify the building owner that it’s ending the lease at a date at least six months out. In that case, LAHSA pays an early termination penalty equivalent to three months of rent
• If the building owner is in breach of the lease, such as failing to fix hazardous conditions after being given an opportunity to fix them.

Master leasing background

When she took office more than three years ago — after winning an election driven by voters wanting homelessness addressed — Bass announced master leasing as a key focus of her promise to quickly make housing available for unhoused people.

“The only way to make this work is to have housing solutions lined up and ready to go,” Bass said when announcing the master leasing strategy in late 2022. “They must be immediately available."

Auditors recently found that LAHSA had committed itself to more than $70 million in total payments over the coming years on “non-cancelable” leases. Master leases have been "primarily" responsible for the increase in LAHSA’s lease liabilities, auditors wrote.

Justin Szlasa, a LAHSA commissioner appointed by county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, raised questions about the master lease strategy last summer, a few months into his time on the commission.

“I was concerned because there was not a lot of transparency around the economics,” Szlasa told LAist in an interview. “My concern was that we’re getting ourselves into long term liabilities without funding sources to be able to cover that."

Szlasa said his questions started after he visited a master leasing site and heard that residents with disabilities had to be carried up and down stairs because the elevators were broken in the relatively new building. He said it wasn’t clear who had responsibility for fixing problems.

“I have questions about, what are we getting for that [spending], and how much is it costing us, and do we have the funds to operate them?” Szlasa said.

“When I hear that we are 30% vacant,” he added, “it is very troubling.”

Officials at the county’s new homelessness department have been working to take over responsibility of services at master leased sites from LAHSA, as the county prepares to take over county homelessness spending from LAHSA starting July 1. The leases themselves will continue to be held by LAHSA, with the new department overseeing services for people housed there, according to the county.

“If any lease is changed or terminated, the County will provide support to all tenants so they can remain in their units where possible or transition to other housing options if needed,” said a statement from the county Department of Homeless Services and Housing, which is led by Sarah Mahin.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs the L.A. City Council’s homelessness committee and made the runoff against Bass for this year’s mayoral election, has been in a key financial oversight position over city homelessness spending for years.

In a statement, she said master leasing is a “compelling option,” but that the problems LAist flagged about its management “are serious.”

“Vacant units representing underutilized public dollars, long-term lease obligations entered into despite declining revenues — these are not acceptable outcomes,” Raman said.

Raman said she’s been working to strengthen city oversight of homelessness dollars through a new city Bureau of Homelessness Oversight. More than a year after the City Council created and funded the bureau, three of its 10 positions have been filled, according to a city spokesperson. The city has a notoriously long hiring process.

The new bureau’s staff are focusing on ensuring that contracts for the upcoming fiscal year are in place, as well as processing invoices for this fiscal year, said Sharon Sandow, a spokesperson for the L.A. Housing Department, which oversees the bureau. The staff also are responding to matters that come up at the City Council’s housing and homelessness committee, Sandow said.

LAHSA transparency issues

The information about the master leasing vacancies was in presentation slides originally attached to the public meeting agenda for the April 17 meeting of LAHSA’s finance committee.

The presentation was canceled and its contents deleted from the public agenda after LAist asked LAHSA’s management about the program. They later confirmed the information was accurate.

The April 2026 presentation would have been the first time LAHSA staff would have notified the commission of the many vacant units in master leasing, according to LAHSA.

LAHSA’s city- and taxpayer-funded contracts, including the master leases, are not posted online or included in the online searchable database of city contracts. That’s because it’s officially a separate agency from the city, even though it's partly funded by the city and has taken direction from the mayor’s office on who to issue contracts to.

Szlasa, the LAHSA commissioner, said there should be transparent tracking of what’s been happening with the money and what taxpayers are getting for it.

“I think we need to have a full, detailed financial accounting and performance accounting, that’s laid clear to the commission, on our master lease program. And frankly that’s what I called for [for] several months,” Szlasa said. “It still hasn’t been provided."

What’s next?

Starting July 1, day-to-day operations at all master-leased properties will transition to the county’s new Department of Homeless Services & Housing (HSH).

The department “has been coordinating closely” to “ensure this transition is as smooth as possible,” said a statement from the department.

As for the seven properties where the leases are being canceled, the residents' leases “will automatically shift to being directly with the property owner” and resident will be able to stay in their units.

“In some cases, HSH is seeking alternate arrangements with owners to allow for more of an onsite presence from providers and other support for residents,” the statement said. “The buildings will continue to receive supportive services from HSH-funded providers as well as their rental subsidies, which come from a variety of sources.”

The World Cup kicked off Thursday, and so does a four-day fan festival at L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

The festival features live broadcasts of the games, music and food, and provides a place for fans to celebrate during the first weekend of the tournament.

General admission tickets are $10, but today’s event is sold out.

Gaby Cardona lives in Los Angeles and came to the Fan Festival to root for Mexico.

“My family is from Michoacan so we're here to support Mexico and you know I'm just so excited to be part of this culture and to be able to represented here in L.A.,” Cardona said.

Other fans rooting for Mexico said they think the team could make it all the way and win the World Cup.

Raul Burgos lives in South L.A. and took the bus to the fan festival at the Coliseum.

“We're taking it all the way!” Burgos said.

Fans can also purchase tickets at the Coliseum’s box office at Gate 29.

The first match of the tournament kicks off at noon Thursday, when Mexico plays South Africa. Then at 7 p.m., South Korea will play Czechia. Both matches are in Mexico.

On Friday, USA plays its first game against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Fans at the festival will be able to watch this match.

Here’s a look inside the festival:

FIFA Fan Festival

L.A.'s World Cup Fan Festival opens to fans at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

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The FIFA Fan Festival will host televised matches for the 2026 World Cup.

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Fans celebrate the 2026 World Cup at the FIFA Fan Festival outside the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

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The first match of the tournament kicks off with Mexico against South Africa.

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This is a developing story and will be updated.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

In 2002, Josh Lee watched South Korea’s World Cup run from a Korean Pentecostal megachurch in New York.

Congregants gathered before dawn to watch the matches, packing into a sanctuary normally reserved for worship. When Ahn Jung-hwan scored the golden goal that sent South Korea past heavily favored Italy and into the World Cup quarterfinals, the church erupted.

“We’re used to people praying in tongues and stuff, but people were going even crazier at like three in the morning,” Lee said. “It literally was in a house of worship and I think that bridged a lot of things for me of how important this is.”

Memories like Lee’s sit at the center of Korea, Away, a documentary series exploring the Korean diaspora through the Korean men’s national soccer team. The title, the creators say, refers to the experience of always being the away team, even in your home country.

Behind the series is Lee, a Los Angeles-based creative and member of a Koreatown-based LAFC supporters group; Ray An, founder and creative director of a L.A. streetwear brand; and Emanuel Hahn, a filmmaker and photographer. Drawing on interviews and reporting from Korean communities across North America throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the three are trying to understand why people support a team from a country they no longer live in — or, in many cases, have never lived in at all.

For An, the question “Why do we support Team Korea?” begins with a contradiction. Many of the people around him are U.S. citizens who don’t closely follow soccer. An, while a soccer fanatic — he’s been to every World Cup since 2014 — was raised in the U.S. Yet every four years, when the World Cup arrives, they find themselves pulling for South Korea.

Again and again, their interviews returned to 2002, when South Korea stunned the world with a run to the semifinals.

The 2002 of it all

Hahn was 12 years old at the time, living in Singapore with his brothers. The family didn’t have cable, so they followed South Korea’s matches through Yahoo Sports’ live updates.

“I didn’t even understand the significance of winning against a powerhouse like Italy. We were just so ecstatic.”

For Hahn, who jumped from place to place as he was growing up — Singapore, Cambodia, Saipan, New York and L.A. — soccer was a constant in his life and how he found his identity.

The tournament left a similarly lasting impression on James Kim, who was 21 and watching matches at Liberty Park in Koreatown.

“I just remember they were selling ‘Be the Reds’ shirts everywhere,” Kim, 45, said. “I even had the ‘Be the Reds’ and Korean flags attached to my car and you just kind of saw that all over Koreatown and it was a really big, cultural experience.”

Kim, who is half Korean and half Filipino, was raised primarily in a Korean household by his Korean father and stepmother. He said the tournament also changed the way he thought about himself.

“I don’t look full-Korean,” he said, “so whether it was at the market or at a restaurant, I never really got treated like I was Korean, and so that was always a little bit of a struggle.”

“I felt like I was able to be a part of something that everyone else — all the other Korean Americans around me — were also a part of,” he continued. “I think that was probably the first time I felt just very proud to be Korean.”

Finding a place on Team Korea

Hahn said many of the people they spoke with described support for the national team in terms of belonging, particularly among immigrants and members of the diaspora navigating questions of identity.

Many immigrants arrive in the U.S. expecting to assimilate, Hahn said, only to discover that that is often more complicated than they imagined.

“When that assimilation is thwarted for whatever reason, there is this response to finding a place that they feel like they can belong,” he said.

The team’s reputation as an underdog resonates with many immigrants who see parallels in their own experiences.

“When they see the South Korean team, especially in 2002, overcoming the odds to go on this sort of Cinderella run, it’s hard not to be romantic about that,” Hahn said.

The interviews also revealed very different relationships to Korean identity.

One of the earliest interviews featured in the project was with Meeja Richards, a biracial Korean and the child of an adopted Korean parent.

Lee said Richards described supporting the national team as a way to connect with a culture she did not grow up around.

“The Korean national team became this choice that she made in adulthood as a way to be like, ‘hey, I want an extension, I want an extra branch, I want a bridge to the Korean culture that I’m not very familiar with,'” Lee said.

Another interviewee, Lee said, considers it his “birthright” to support South Korea despite being a U.S. citizen.

The project tries to understand what lies beneath those convictions, An said.

The interviews also revealed generational differences, Hahn said.

While younger interview subjects grew up surrounded by Korean cultural exports such as BTS, Blackpink and Son Heung-min, older interview subjects often viewed the success of the national team through the lens of immigration and sacrifice.

“What I gathered from these interviews was it’s very gratifying, I think, for them to see the success of the Korean men’s national team and to see someone like Sonny, it almost feels like a validation of all the hard work that they’ve done,” he said.

While the docuseries focuses on Korean identity, An, Hahn and Lee say that diversity is central to the series.

“We want to highlight just how diverse the diaspora is,” Hahn said. “How can soccer be a tool to inform the parts of yourself? We want to build a big tent where hopefully people can see a bit of themselves in the interviews that we do.”

The series is expected to be released after the World Cup, likely in late summer or early fall. Follow the project on Instagram, @korea.away, for updates.

It's the World Cup's world and we're just living in it?

At least, that's how it may feel for the next six weeks. The planet's largest sporting event has officially begun in North America with a majority of games happening across the 11 host cities in the U.S.

With a record 48 teams and a whopping 1,248 players, there's an endless number of facts and figures about the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But don't worry. We've gathered some of the top stats to know before you start watching the games.

Oldest player

Heading into his first World Cup ever, Scotland's Craig Gordon will be competing as the oldest footballer on the global stage and second oldest in World Cup history at 43 years old.

Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon in action during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Scotland and Denmark at Hampden Park on Nov. 18, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland.

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But he's far from the only quadragenarian competing. As of June 11, there are seven players in their 40s with one of soccer's greats Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal being the second oldest. Ronaldo, 41, is heading to his sixth World Cup without the major trophy yet to his name.

Other notable 40-somethings on the field will be Luka Modrić of Croatia and Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico — both of whom are 40. (Uruguay's Fernando Muslera will join the 40s club on June 16.)

Youngest player

More common than quadragenarians at the World Cup are the number of players not old enough to buy alcohol in the U.S. Meanwhile, the youngest is not yet of age to get a tattoo without a parent's permission.

Gilberto Mora of Tijuana at Caliente Stadium on Nov. 26, 2025 in Tijuana, Mexico.

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That's none other than 17-year-old Gilberto Mora of Mexico. Mora will be the youngest player ever to represent Mexico at the World Cup. But he's still about six months older than the youngest footballer ever to appear on the global stage. That title has been held by Northern Ireland's Norman Whiteside since 1982.

Team USA's best run

The U.S. team has competed on soccer's biggest stage a total of 12 times — including at the inaugural World Cup in 1930, where the U.S. placed third out of 13.

Since then, the country's best run was in 2002 when the U.S. made it to the quarterfinals — defeating Portugal and Mexico before losing to Germany and finishing in 8th.

The U.S. came in 14th at the 2022 World Cup after being pummeled by the Netherlands 3-1 in the Round of 16.

The most common game result

Soccer is a low-scoring sport and the most common scorelines prove it. On the global stage, 182 games — about a fifth of all matches — have ended in 1-0. The second most common is 2-1.

One of the rarest scorelines (and the most goals made in a single World Cup match) was Hungary's 10-1 win over El Salvador at an opening group game in 1982.

Most red cards

A red card, which leads to an immediate dismissal from the field and suspension from the subsequent match, has been handed to Brazil a total of 11 times across 9 different matches since 1930 — though the team's last red card was in 2010.

Only two players have ever received more than one red. That goes to Cameroon's Rigobert Song and France's Zinedine Zidane, who have both received two on the global stage. Zidane's second red card was especially infamous: At the finals in 2006, he headbutted an Italian player's chest, allegedly because the opponent insulted his mother and sister.

A photo taken July 9, 2006 of French midfielder Zinedine Zidane (L) gesturing after head butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi during the World Cup 2006 final football match between Italy and France at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

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World Cup's most-represented club

The global tournament will feature 19 athletes from the English Premier League team Manchester City. The players are spread out across 12 national teams in three continents: Algeria, Belgium, Croatia, Egypt, England, France, Ghana, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Uzbekistan.
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

If you hear what sounds like a truly unsafe barrage of fireworks on an average weeknight this month, if you find yourself metaphorically drowning in a sea of green flags during your rush-hour commute, if your usual taquero smells like expensive tequila, don’t worry, Los Angeles. It probably just means Mexico’s national soccer team has won its latest World Cup match. Or lost it, I guess.

The FIFA World Cup begins Friday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, and officials across Los Angeles County have been touting it as a once-in-a-generation moment, a dress rehearsal for the 2028 Olympics, a $594 million injection into the local economy and proof that L.A. can pull off anything. 

The 2026 World Cup seems different for many reasons, not least that L.A. will be hosting eight matches of the globe’s most popular sporting event while many of its residents are still worried about immigration crackdowns. 

“If the World Cup is to fulfill its promise of unity, it must do more than fill stadiums,” José M. Alamillo and José Luis Collazo Jr. wrote recently in Zócalo. “It must heed lessons of the past to ensure that Latino communities who built the sport in the U.S. are not made to feel like outsiders in their own game.”

Unite Here Local 11 members celebrate a successful contract negotiation during a press conference outside SoFi Stadium on June 9, 2026.

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That tension is already happening in our own backyard, highlighted by stadium hospitality workers who had to threaten a strike just days before kickoff to secure safety guarantees. 

As Ashleigh Huffman, the U.S. State Department’s former chief of sports diplomacy, noted, the global tournament is walking a razor-thin tightrope: 

“I see the 2026 World Cup at the intersection of two really stark realities. Unprecedented opportunity to heal a country that is deeply divided and a world that is struggling. And unprecedented scrutiny. Everything that’s going on has the power to unite us, but it also is forcing conversations around access and human rights and immigration and who gets included in this celebration.” 

Here are five questions we’re asking as the month of games get underway. 

Fans pose for a photo prior to a FIFA World Cup qualifying soccer match between Mexico and the United States, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, in Cincinnati. The U.S. won 2-0.

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Will traffic be a mess, and can Metro handle it?

Metro’s spokesperson Jose Ubaldo told The LA Local that the agency is working “with a coalition of regional transit providers” to add 300 buses with direct service to the games.

“The regular Metro bus service won’t be disturbed,” Ubadlo said via email. “Services are aimed at helping fans reach matches, fan festivals and related events throughout Southern California.”

Metro enhanced bus service is nonstop to SoFi Stadium and will operate from 15 different locations in L.A. and Orange County

See the list of pick-up locations here. 

Metrolink is also layering on special service and late-night runs. But given that it takes me an hour and a half to get from Koreatown to Southeast L.A. any given afternoon, it will remain to be seen if more buses can make a major impact. 

All we have to do is look at the Mexico vs Australia friendly at the Rose Bowl a few weeks ago. I spoke to a few people who went to that game — or at least tried to — and they spent most of it stuck in just parking lot traffic. 

Metro says it’s treating the event like a unique logistical quagmire. Except, it may not be unique. Even though more people generally watch the World Cup, the summer 2026 Olympic Games will be spread all over L.A. County with way more than just eight events. 

Dallan Larsen, right, and Casey Stagner wear U.S. flag costumes as they walk past Mexican soccer fans before the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer final between the United States and Mexico, outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., Saturday, June 25, 2011.

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Will local businesses actually get a boost?

The official estimate puts total economic impact at about $892 million across Los Angeles County, with $515 million in direct visitor spending, but big-event money has a habit of clustering around hotels, stadium-adjacent corridors and tourist traps before it reaches the taquería or panadería around the corner. 

Some local businesses in Boyle Heights and Pico Union have already told us they are already starting to see a positive impact. But a prime example of how big events don’t always equal business can be found right down the street from SoFi Stadium in downtown Inglewood. Take CoquetteKouture, a small African clothing boutique that had been a neighborhood staple for more than 36 years. While massive sports venues went up nearby, the owners, Aicha and Bass Lo, watched their actual foot traffic and sales plummet due to local gentrification, leading to the business’s eventual closure. 

Will regular people find ways to enjoy it?

The city and its partners are rolling out public fan programming and transit-linked viewing options, which is the right instinct in a city where most people cannot afford the four-figure ticket.

But some of that enjoyment will depend on the next question. 

A Huntington Park, Calif., Police officer aims his rifle towards a crowd of unruly soccer fans, June 28, 1994, after an impromptu celebration of Mexico’s 1-1 tie with Italy in World Cup action became a disturbance.

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How will police increase their presence?

Officials have already described the security operation as one of the largest in L.A. history, and that kind of language usually means more police, more cameras, more checkpoints and more of the feeling that ordinary public space is suddenly a  highly-secure government office building. 

ABC7 reported the operation is being framed as a precursor to the 2028 Olympics. But as The LA Local recently reported, some organizers feel this could be the start of a new security state. The city recently authorized a rush transfer of nearly half a million dollars to build out a centralized “Real-Time Crime Center” on the third floor of the Police Administration Building, specifically racing to meet a deadline for this June’s World Cup. 

The command hub will weave together AI-driven analytics, live camera feeds and automated license plate readers. For community organizers like Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, this is history repeating itself. He told The LA Local that the city is using the World Cup as a Trojan horse to “layer in surveillance infrastructure that will still be standing long after the closing ceremonies.” 

It’s a playbook straight out of the 1984 L.A. Olympics, when Chief Daryl Gates used massive federal funding to launch dragnet “sanitation sweeps” of unhoused people and Black and brown neighborhoods under the guise of Olympic security — leaving behind a legacy of militarized policing that Angelenos have been dealing with ever since. 

President Donald Trump shakes hands with FIFA President Gianni Infantino as he presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize during the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington.

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Will DHS go after immigrant fans and visitors on visas? 

That’s the question hanging over all of it. White House Task Force on the World Cup executive director Andrew Giuliani recently tried to wave away concerns, stating flatly that “if you’re inside the country legally, then you have nothing to worry about.” Officially, the Department of Homeland Security maintains that civil immigration enforcement will not happen at the games.

But in a city where federal immigration arrests have tripled over the last year, those reassurances can ring hollow to people struggling to get their legal status sorted. L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna recently confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actively embedded in the World Cup security layout. 

While officials claim ICE is only there in an “investigatory” capacity, Sheriff Luna himself admitted to reporters that the promise of zero civil enforcement is completely “subject to change.” 

We will report back on these questions in 39 days, when the World Cup is over. But for now, I will just leave my fellow Mexico fans with this: “No era penal.”