Manhattan Celtic Soccer Players Held By ICE | OneFootball

Two players from the New York City-based soccer team Manhattan Celtic were held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents following a training session this week.

An ICE presence turned up at Pier 40 at Hudson River Park, where the team trains, and checked players' identification documents.

Understandably, some of the players did not have passports to hand as they were merely going about their daily business, but two were held as a result, with ICE requesting the documentation.

Club representatives needed to intervene in order to get their players released, and members of the local soccer community are now advising soccer teams training on Pier 40 to carry their passports, as driving licenses and other ID were apparently not enough for ICE.

This is exacerbated by ICE's current, controversial use of the Pier 40 parking lot, which means there are regularly agents in the vicinity.

Their arrangement with the Hudson River Park Trust to use this facility ends in June 2026, "amid growing concerns about the Trump administration’s heavy-handed tactics," but Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, wants the contract to end immediately, tweeting:

"The city and state who control the Hudson River Park Trust is providing space for ICE dozens of vehicles to park at Pier 40. This is publicly owned space that should be subject to New York City’s sanctuary policies which prevent cooperation with ICE.

"I understand the contract is set to expire in June, but every day matters when you consider that the city and the state are in effect colluding in family separation policies with the federal government.

"The contract must end now."

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has recently supported calls for abolishing ICE.

"I am in support of abolishing ICE, and I'll tell you why," Mamdani told ABC News.

"What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist.

"We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead, what it is doing is terrorizing people, no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, and no matter the facts of the case.

"I'm tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of a car, dragged out of their home, and dragged out of their life.

"What we need to see is humanity, and there is a way to care about immigration in this city and in this country with a sense of humanity, what were seeing from ICE is not it, and we have not seen that from them in a long, long time."

Manhattan Celtic recently competed in the American Premier Soccer League (APSL), which is the top tier of a local to regional league pyramid organized on the East Coast of the United States.

They now field first and reserve teams in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League (CSL) divisions, which offers promotion to the APSL, as well as running over-40s and women's setups.

The CSL boasts a diverse range of teams, including players and clubs with roots in various parts of the world, so its teams are sadly a potential target for the kind of ICE discrimination and heavy-handedness that has been seen across the United States.