New York vowed to protect immigrants. The World Cup final is the moment of truth.

On Sunday, the eyes of the world turn to New York for the World Cup final, capping a tournament set to beat the record for highest cumulative attendance in World Cup history.

The deeper story of this tournament isn’t playing out under the lights. It’s unfolding in the parking lots, transit hubs, and neighborhoods around the stadiums, where immigrant families are asking whether hosting the world’s game means being welcomed — or being watched.

A recent poll conducted by Opinium for the transatlantic think tank Concordia Forum found that 45% of Muslims in the U.S. are often or always worried they or someone close to them will be affected by anti-Muslim violence. More striking still, over 39% said they avoid certain places out of safety concerns. Their fears will have been sharpened by two fatal shootings within a week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — one in Maine, one in Houston. In both cases, neither man was the original target of the enforcement operation, and both leave behind grieving families.

This is what “enforcement” looks like under this administration: lethal, indiscriminate, and expanding.

Now Washington is bringing that same posture to New York. In advance of the final match, border czar Tom Homan has promised New Yorkers “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen,” framing it as payback for New York’s sanctuary laws — local rules limiting how far city agencies help federal immigration enforcement. The surge is timed to a tournament that’s drawn millions of visitors, many from countries now targeted by expanded travel restrictions.

It is hard to read this as anything other than an attempt to punish New York for refusing to do Washington’s enforcement work for it.

New York has not backed down. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been unambiguous, calling ICE’s presence an attempt “to divide us” and noting that six U.S. men’s national team players are themselves immigrants. His administration has restricted New York Police Department cooperation with ICE, barred federal agents from city property without a judicial warrant, and has completed and published a citywide audit of every city agency’s dealings with federal immigration authorities — a level of transparency and follow-through most sanctuary cities never attempt.

That kind of institutional courage carries a cost, and I know exactly what it can look like up close. As an immigrant rights advocate in the weeks after 9/11, I saw this play out in my Brooklyn backyard on Coney Island Avenue, where thousands of Muslims were rounded up and detained and/or deported under the Bush administration. Washington is running the same playbook now, just at a much larger scale: manufacture a threat, attach it to an immigrant identity, and let the political pressure do the rest.

That escalation doesn’t stop with the final whistle. Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2028, and Washington’s willingness to weaponize federal enforcement against a host city sets a precedent every future host will have to reckon with. Agents visibly stationed near Sunday’s Central Park watch party would send an unmistakable message about how far this administration is willing to go to undermine New York’s resolve in full view of the world.

New York’s sanctuary protections are real, and Mamdani has been consistent in defending them. Washington’s decision to turn a global celebration into a show of federal force against a city that has broken no law — a city that has only declined to do the federal government’s job for it — is the actual failure here. Call it what it is: retaliation, staged for an audience of billions. All eyes are on New York again — this time, waiting to see what Washington does next.

Debbie Almontaser is a Yemeni American educator with 25 years’ experience teaching in New York City public schools. She is a published author and motivational speaker, spending two decades advocating for Muslim and immigrant communities in New York. She is also the founding principal of NYC’s Khalil Gibran International Academy and CEO of Bridging Cultures Group.