Above photo: Right: Artists for Artists: MIA created 11 posters representing World Cup host cities across the U.S. to protest immigration enforcement. Left: “Know your rights” posters designed by Florida artists. Illustration on right by johann muñoz-tapasco, illustration on left by Les Gomez-Gonzalez.
Artists for Artists: MIA joined the national “No ICE in the Cup” campaign.
To call attention to the impact of immigration enforcement in World Cup host cities.
As FIFA World Cup matches draw fans from around the globe to South Florida, local artists are using the tournament’s international spotlight to raise concerns about immigration detention in the state.
The community arts collective Artists for Artists: MIA (A4A: MIA) joined the national “No ICE in the Cup” (NIITC) campaign, calling attention to the impact of immigration enforcement in World Cup host cities, including Miami. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a promotional video ahead of the games that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers “will be out there everyday.”
The soccer matches, which bring the country’s diasporic communities together in support of their teams, is a natural draw for foreign-born people who call the U.S. home. Through artwork and community outreach, organizers hope to use the tournament’s visibility to connect soccer fans with information about immigrant rights and ongoing advocacy efforts.
Among the campaign’s commissioned artists is johann muñoz-tapasco, a co-lead organizer with A4A: MIA who created one of 11 posters commissioned in World Cup host cities across the U.S. to protest immigration enforcement.
“[Miami] leads in detentions per capita in the country, so before the games started, the community was already feeling the anxiety and implications around ICE presence in our streets,” muñoz-tapasco said. “The immigration landscape in the state, and specifically in Miami, has shifted significantly, even though we know that this is not new, [in] a place that for a long time has been seen as a potential haven for many people who were undocumented.”
The campaign emerged from a coalition of national organizations advocating against the presence of ICE around World Cup events and in immigrant communities. Muñoz-tapasco said his involvement came through relationships built over years of organizing work and through A4A: MIA’s ongoing collaborations with immigrant rights organizations in South Florida, including Florida Rising and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
“The violence ICE has inflicted on immigrant communities has left millions of people feeling scared and alone, but this is precisely when artists must get to work,” Paola Mendoza, co-lead of NIITC artist commission, said in a press release. “Artists can inspire people to organize against what they are afraid of. Art has the power to bring people together when fear pushes us into silos. When we connect the power of art with the love of soccer, the possibility to protect people and our democracy is unstoppable.”
Muñoz-tapasco created a poster intended to reflect the current reality in Miami. Their poster draws inspiration from vintage Florida tourism postcards. A closer look reveals a more critical message. The artwork features an alligator tearing through a soccer ball while directing viewers toward an emergency travel advisory created by organizers. The advisory includes multilingual resources such as “know your rights” information, immigration hotlines, and guidance for families navigating detention or deportation proceedings.
Muñoz-tapasco said the piece also references the detention facility commonly known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which became a focal point of organizing efforts by immigrant rights advocates and community groups over the past year.
“It’s a work of historical memory,” they said. “The poster invites people’s attention, but ultimately it serves as a powerful reminder of the political conditions, the violent histories that allowed for a concentration camp like this one.”
During public debates about the detention facility, alligators frequently appeared in memes and merchandise that advocates criticized as dehumanizing toward migrants. Muñoz-tapasco said their poster attempts to reclaim the symbol while connecting it to Florida’s environmental and Indigenous histories.
“It was a way of giving reverence to something that has been there longer than all of us,” they said.
For muñoz-tapasco, the issue is also deeply personal. Born and raised in Colombia, he immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager and spent nearly a decade undocumented.
“I know what it is to live in that constant fear,” they said, “what it is to not trust law enforcement in all its iterations.”
That experience shaped their artwork and their organizing. They said the World Cup offered a rare opportunity to engage people who might not otherwise participate in immigration advocacy. A recent travel advisory issued by more than 120 organizations warned visitors about heightened immigration enforcement risks in the U.S. during World Cup-related travel. Advocates say these coordinated advisories are meant to ensure that residents and international visitors have access to clear information about their rights and available support systems.
“These matches are meant to bring people together,” muñoz-tapasco said. “Through art, we, too, facilitate togetherness and spaces for mutual curiosity, communication, and emancipatory politics.”
They referenced a recent event co-hosted by Florida Rising during the Brazil vs. Haiti match, which was held in Philadelphia but was followed by scores of fans from diaspora communities across Miami. Organizers distributed posters designed to draw attention through striking visuals while also providing critical, lifesaving information.
“Soccer has long been a unifying force that transcends borders and backgrounds, and the World Cup should be a celebration that reflects that spirit of competition and fair play captured by the beautiful game—something we can all rally around,” Julia Roig, founder of Horizons Project, an initiative focused on strengthening democracy, said in a press release. “This campaign demonstrates what’s possible when we organize across ideologies and sectors and create spaces where all people—regardless of immigration status—can gather, celebrate and experience community without fear.”
A4A: MIA has also expanded the campaign beyond the original commissioned works. Earlier this month, the organization launched an open call inviting South Florida artists to create posters responding to the political realities facing immigrant communities in the state.
“There’s sports-washing/art-washing of the realities and the truths that are happening right now in our world, and so we wanted our community to contend with the reality of our state,” muñoz-tapasco said. “We live in a state that is dealing with censorship and state violence. So we wanted to, with this call, lean into those discomforting truths and prescient storytelling.”
Select posters will be made available for download through the local campaign and the national NIITC platform.
One of the campaign’s central goals, muñoz-tapasco said, is ensuring that the stories of families affected by detention and deportation remain part of the public record long after the tournament ends. Organizers hope the posters will continue circulating after the final whistle, preserving a record of this moment and encouraging residents to examine the institutions, policies, and private interests that shape immigration enforcement in Florida.
“I think so much of it really boils down to political education,” muñoz-tapasco said. “Archiving these histories and these memories, so that people know how this came to be and how we prevent it from happening again.”
Originally published by Prism.
