ICE agents won’t carry guns during the FIFA World Cup in Toronto
Many including Toronto city council have expressed concern over ICE presence this summer
Last month, Toronto city council passed a motion brought forward by Mayor Olivia Chow opposing any presence of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at this summer’s World Cup.
“ICE has demonstrated through their actions in Minnesota and across the US that they bring fear and disorder, not safety and security,” Chow wrote in the motion. “Any presence of ICE in Toronto is liable to create fear during a time when we want to welcome the world and ensure that everyone feels safe.”
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Many questioned why the American agency would be in Toronto at all, and whether ICE agents would have authority to make arrests while in Canada. (ICE has five offices throughout the country, including in Toronto and Vancouver, which will host Canada’s World Cup matches.)
When recently asked by the Canadian Press, an ICE spokesperson clarified the agency’s role here.
“Homeland Security Investigations special agents do not conduct operational activities in Canada, such as making arrests or executing search warrants,” the spokesperson said.
They do, however, work with Canadian law enforcement on joint investigations involving drug and weapons smuggling, human trafficking and child exploitation.
Some of the public’s concern stemmed from the fact that three dozen people, including a Canadian, have reportedly died while in ICE custody since US President Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. Two people in Minnesota were shot and killed during encounters with ICE agents earlier this year.
The spokesperson told the Canadian Press that while in Canada, ICE agents will not carry firearms.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
