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The Department of Homeland Security did the right thing when it blocked a person traveling with Iran’s soccer delegation after Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned the individual had direct ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Americans who put national security first should be grateful our leadership didn’t treat the World Cup like an open-door social event for hostile actors. DHS’s move sent a clear signal: patriotism and public safety outweigh performative diplomacy in the name of sport.
Tehran predictably pushed back, with Iran’s football federation angrily denying that an official was prevented from boarding a flight to the United States. Those denials are convenient PR when the regime wants to keep its security apparatus cloaked by sports and culture; Washington knows better than to accept Tehran’s word at face value. The American people deserve a government that vets visitors with common-sense suspicion, especially when the IRGC — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization — is involved.
This isn’t some isolated stunt: Washington has openly said it will not allow individuals with IRGC ties to embed themselves in Iran’s World Cup delegation, and officials have been closely vetting travel groups for precisely that reason. Good policy means protecting our citizens first, not handing Tehran yet another opportunity to exploit international events for espionage or influence operations. If political elites or media elites balk at basic vetting, Americans should question whose side those elites are on.
All of this comes as fraught diplomacy plays out in Switzerland, where technical talks between the United States and Iran have been scheduled, postponed, and restarted amid regional fighting and strategic uncertainty. The Strait of Hormuz — the world’s oil choke point — is once again the center of geopolitical leverage, and any lull in vigilance invites Iran to test the limits of U.S. resolve. We should negotiate from strength, not concede our security to the same regime that backs proxies and destabilizes neighbors.
Meanwhile, Secretary Mullin has warned about a rise in attempts by Iranian nationals and others to exploit America’s northern border, forcing Homeland Security to reallocate assets to Canada’s frontier. This is exactly why we cannot be soft on entry and must restore strict, sensible border enforcement across every mile of our sovereign lines. Open borders invite bad actors, and the cost in drugs, crime, and intelligence risks falls on ordinary Americans who pay the bill.
Patriotic Americans should applaud a DHS secretary who puts country over optics and refuse to be lectured by those who equate caution with xenophobia. This administration’s job is to keep the homeland safe, and that means shutting down any backdoor Tehran might try to use — even if it’s hidden behind a soccer jersey. If the political class won’t demand real security, voters must, and we must hold our leaders accountable until the borders are secure and Iran’s terrorist networks have no entry into the United States.
