'Suited and booted' immigration officials may stoke Club World Cup anxiety

NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY :U.S. Customs and Border Protection has promised to be "suited and booted" at the first round of Club World Cup soccer matches, as the curtain-raiser event for next year's World Cup kicks off amidst anxiety from some fans in the United States.

The tournament starts in Miami on Saturday as soccer great Lionel Messi and his MLS team Inter Miami play Egypt's Al Ahly, as protests over U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies continue across the country.

"CBP will be suited and booted, ready to provide security for the first round of games," the department wrote in a widely reported social media post that added to some fans' concerns over attending the Club World Cup.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment over the now-deleted post.

Tom Warrick, a former DHS deputy assistant secretary, told Reuters that while it is a normal practice for agencies like ICE and CBP to provide surge capacity security at major sporting events, the language from the post caused understandable alarm.

"I suspect it was just a moment of inattention before somebody cleared a message that someone else should have said, 'Oh, whoa, wait a minute, we need to change the messaging'," said Warrick, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.

"They may also need to change the security posture because very clearly, you know, uniformed officers or people in tactical gear are going to be looked at very differently, especially by a sporting event that is of such interest to people who come from countries that have citizens that have been the target of some of Trump's immigration enforcement measures."

Trump deployed the Marines in Los Angeles this week in response to civilians