Haitians in Boston savour 2026 World Cup return but keep low profile amid ICE fears | OneFootball

According to Le Progres, Massachusetts’s Haitian diaspora is thrilled to see the Grenadiers face Scotland in Boston on Saturday, three am French time, yet festivities are muted by fears of US immigration enforcement around the Gilette Stadium.

Scotland’s colours are everywhere, but Massachusetts hosts about 100,000 Haitians. Migration began in the 1960s and intensified under Jean-Claude Duvalier as academics sought refuge around MIT, Harvard and Cambridge.

Christopher fled Port-au-Prince after armed men stormed his home, moved to Atlanta, then headed north after struggling with the South’s mindset. Now in Boston for five years, he feels unease since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and a friend was detained in Texas for three months.

Fearing encounters with ICE near the venue, many plan to steer clear, expecting checks around the ground and a climate shaped by hostile rhetoric from the top of the US administration.

Even so, Boston’s Toussaint Louverture Centre has marked Haiti’s return to the World Cup after more than half a century, hosting ex-international Jean-Claude Désir from New York, cultural talks and a T-Vice concert.

An exit ban preventing Haitians from leaving the island to support the team has felt like an injustice to their American cousins. Unable to travel for fear of not being readmitted, Christopher would consider Canada, where one sister lives, if policy hardens. For now, given the climate and ticket prices, he will watch on TV, and if Sébastien Migné’s side record Haiti’s first World Cup win, he will celebrate it quietly.

Source: Le Progres