WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Breitbart News that the “biggest problem” federal agents are facing in securing events surrounding the FIFA World Cup in North America in 2026 is “counterfeit tickets” that are defrauding patrons.
“We have a tremendous amount of counterfeit material coming in with this,” Mullin told Breitbart News. “People don’t realize this, but counterfeit tickets – which is a major issue, probably the biggest issue we have at the moment is counterfeit tickets. Barcodes, we looked at the issue, but we had that barcode that was going to get you into the Fan Fest but it wouldn’t get you into the stadium and so people were buying these tickets thinking they were buying real tickets and they’re expensive. These tickets are expensive and so are the counterfeits – which is part of the job of ICE, which is HSI. We have to deal with it.”
Mullin, marking 100 days into his tenure as secretary of state at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters in Washington, sat down for a lengthy exclusive on-camera interview with Breitbart News for about half an hour, in which he detailed his time in office. Mullin was put into the job shortly after her predecessor Kristi Noem was reappointed by the president to focus on Latin American affairs, and went through a relatively quick confirmation process by the US Senate. Mullin was a senator, so his confirmation came easily and he had the bipartisan support of at least two Democrat-Sensors. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) – are supporting him. When he was confirmed, he was just days away from the largest event in DHS history to be secured in the United States with the World Cup now approaching. This first part of the interview focuses on World Cup security efforts, and upcoming interviews will also highlight President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration enforcement and border security efforts, as well as how Mullin is combating foreign threats.
Asked about securing the World Cup, Mullin praised Andrew Giuliani, who was running a task force at DHS before coming to office — but said that when he was sworn in as secretary, the effort was lagging in large part due to congressional Democrats shutting down DHS. Mullin said efforts to secure the World Cup include hosting multiple Super Bowl-level events in just over a month as well as partnering with Mexico on events held there. Mullin praised the state and local law enforcement partners of all 11 host cities, even noting that while there are some sanctuary cities that are at odds with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, he hopes the closeness of relationships being built now can lead to closer collaboration in the future.
World Cup gear (John Kahn/Breitbart News)
“Andrew Giuliani was running a task force and his team has done phenomenal work, but when we got involved, we were a little behind, OK,” Mullin told Breitbart News. “We were shut down, actually, we were still shut down for a very long time at that time, but we completely shut down DHS for 76 days and then ICE and CBP were shut down for 115 days. It was tough because we have MOUs that we have to pay back our local law enforcement. We have 11 stadiums in 11 different cities and 78 Super Bowls in 38 days and Also we have a big job in Monterrey and Mexico City, we have five to seven million visitors coming to see the games and we also have to make sure that we have teams that travel there, and we have to secure the practice areas where they are. DHS is on top of all that.”
In addition to immigration matters, Mullin said DHS is currently conducting the largest unmanned aerial system, or UAS, operation ever in United States history to prevent drones and other threats at these stadiums.
“Then when we go into the stadiums, we have the largest counter-UAS activity going on right now in the history of the country and we had to create all that,” Mullin said. “It’s been a challenge, but I’ve worked with some of the greatest people in every state, even in California, even in New Jersey, Texas, Kansas, Atlanta, Georgia – the list is long – Seattle, Washington, and everybody has been focused on making sure that these games are successful. Some of these places that we’ve been working on are sanctuary cities and sanctuary states, but hopefully when this game is over We can build momentum because guess what? We’ve learned that we can work together in great partnerships and be successful in securing sites and so far we’ve been through some really great games and the fans are really enjoying them.
When it comes to immigration processing for the millions of fans and thousands of players and team personnel, Mullin said DHS is working closely with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s State Department to make sure everything is processed smoothly there.
“We are also working on it but there is no other agency that can take care of it, okay?” Mullin said. “That’s why DHS exists – the Department of Homeland Security – that’s why we have 22 components here because we have CIS that takes care of the immigration part, which we have a big partnership with the state on because we have to sign off on it then the state has to actually release it. We have FPS, which is our federal protective service. We have Customs and Border Protection, which has to process all of our visitors that come in.”
And for what it’s worth, in addition to the issue of counterfeit stamps, Mullin said there is an emerging industry of counterfeit merchandise of both Puma and FIFA gear — and also that federal agents are working with state and local partners to fight the crime and especially drugs that “follow” large crowds in the United States.
“When you start talking about clothing, everyone is destroying Puma and destroying FIFA at the moment, and so we’re constantly having to fight that,” Mullin said. “It’s just things you don’t understand, or people don’t pay attention to, because we have counterfeiting. You also have other criminal activities – you also have drugs that follow it. Because we have such great partnerships with local police departments and our state police departments working in cities and towns and states – but then we’re also able to have federal partnerships and we’re really building to fight this crime.”
Mullin’s latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.
