This Venezuelan Little League Team Was Denied U.S. Visas — Could This Happen at the Olympics or FIFA World Cup Too?
The latest victims of the Trump administration’s crackdown on visas are the Cacique Mara Little League baseball team from Venezuela. The Venezuela team was denied visas to the United States to compete in the Little League World Series. The tournament is happening August 13-24 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Despite earning their place in the World Series, the Trump administration denied them visas. Here’s what this decision might mean for the upcoming FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Trump administration banned child baseball players from the Little League World Series
The Cacique Mara Little League team qualified to be part of the 2025 Little League World Series. Yet, President Donald Trump’s travel ban denied the Venezuelan team a chance to compete. The team, which has worked all year for the honor of participating on an international stage, saw its chance taken away.
“The players are demoralized. All they know how to do is play baseball. They want to go compete and leave the name of Venezuela and Latin America high,” Kendry Gutiérrez, the president of the Cacique Mara Little League, said in a release. “They don’t represent any threat; they are 15-year-old kids who want to win the World Cup.”
The team and their coaches went to interviews for the visas on July 14 and were denied by an immigration officer. Little League International, headquartered in Pennsylvania, stepped in to request emergency visas for the team and were also denied.
The denial stems from the Trump administration’s travel ban that completely blocks citizens of certain countries from entering. It also has restrictions on other countries. The countries with total bans include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Countries with travel restrictions include Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
The decision could have major ramifications for other international events
According to The Athletic, the State Department claims there are exemptions for athletes in the travel bans. Yet, it seems that those exemptions don’t matter. Part of the American immigration system relies on some immigration officers to use their own discretion. This is a troubling flaw in the system. It assumes that the immigration officers, who are people, hold no prejudices and will follow the process in a legal and fair way. It opens the door for conspiracy theories and racial prejudices to harm visa applicants.
Looking to the future, the U.S. is hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. Iran, a country listed as banned from entering the U.S., qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Based on the exemption for athletes, the Iranian soccer team should be allowed to compete. Yet, if an immigration officer can deny a Little League team from Venezuela, with a lower threshold to enter, who is to say an immigration officer wouldn’t deny Iran?
Sports have a long history as a branch of diplomacy between nations. There is a reason that international sporting events are hosted in different countries every year. The international sporting events bring countries together for the shared love of athleticism.
