World Cup draw could hardly have gone better for US

The United States could hardly have asked for a better draw at the 2026 World Cup.

The co-host should expect to stick around at its own party until at least the round of 32 after being grouped with Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a European playoff between Turkey, Slovakia, Kosovo and Romania in Friday's draw, attended by President Donald Trump in Washington.

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will take nothing for granted but with none of those nations ranked in the top 20 by FIFA it would be a major disappointment if his team failed to advance as one of the top two in Group D or via the safety net as a best-performing third-place qualifier.

Another co-host, Mexico, will also expect to progress from a group with South Africa, South Korea and one of Denmark, North Macedonia, Czech Republic or Ireland.

Third co-host Canada's group could look significantly more difficult if four-time world champion Italy qualifies via the playoffs. Canada, which has never won a point at the World Cup, also drew Qatar and Switzerland.

The relatively kind draws for the co-hosts looks like a consequence of a supersized 48-team World Cup, up from 32 teams.

With so many teams and a seeded draw, it was natural the biggest nations would be kept apart in the opening phase.

There was no obvious “group of death.”

France was drawn with Senegal, Norway and one of Bolivia, Suriname or Iraq.

England, ranked No. 4, has No. 10-ranked Croatia, Ghana and Panama.

The group phase may deliver shocks but it is hard to see the real jeopardy for the top seeded teams.

Defending champion Argentina has to navigate only Algeria, Austria and Jordan, while European champion Spain has Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, however, insisted danger was all around.

“People think there are easy groups but it is a very similar level,” de la Fuente said. “This will be a historic World Cup because there’s an exceptional level all round. These games force you to play at your best.”

Morocco was one of the stories of the last World Cup by becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals. And it has the chance to make a statement in its first game next year against mighty Brazil.

Morocco coach Walid Regragui said it will be “one of the greatest matches” of the tournament.

“We want to try to win the group or at least get through to the next phase,” he told TV Globo. “Since the 2022 World Cup everyone wants to beat us.”

England vs. Croatia is a repeat of a 2018 semifinal. Croatia won on that occasion and was a semifinalist again in 2022. England is one of the title favorites next year after back-to-back European Championship finals.

There's a repeat of one of the biggest ever World Cup upsets when France takes on Senegal. Senegal stunned the then-defending champion France 1-0 in 2002.

“We know this is a very tough group, we cannot rest,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.

Tiny Curaçao and Cape Verde will share the stage with titans of international soccer.

Curaçao is the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the World Cup and will play four-time champion Germany. Cape Verde is the third smallest to qualify and is grouped with Spain.

Scotland, at its first World Cup since 1998, faces familiar opposition in Brazil. The nations have met on four previous occasions at sport's biggest event — 1974, ‘82, ’90 and ‘98 — and Scotland didn’t win any of them.

The Scots were also grouped with Morocco in 1998 and will meet again.

Haiti completes Group C.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on course to set a new record of appearing at six World Cups.

Should Argentina and Portugal win their respective groups, the earliest the two greats could meet would be in the quarterfinals in Kansas City.

Messi ended his long wait to win the World Cup when he led Argentina to glory in 2022.

Ronaldo is still waiting to win the one major trophy that has eluded him and this is surely his last chance, given he will be 41 when the tournament kicks off.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

U.S. team coach Mauricio Pochettino arrives to attend the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

(left to right) FIFA President Gianni Infantino,President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney smile during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dan Mullan/Pool Photo via AP)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaks during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Pool)

U.S. team coach Mauricio Pochettino attends the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dan Mullan/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump is greeted by FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Jia Haocheng/Pool Photo via AP)

KENNER, La. (AP) — The doors of Carmela Diaz's taco joint are locked, the tables are devoid of customers and no one is working in the kitchen. It's one of many once-thriving Hispanic businesses, from Nicaraguan eateries to Honduran restaurants, emptied out in recent weeks in neighborhoods with lots of signs in Spanish but increasingly fewer people on the streets.

In the city of Kenner, which has the highest concentration of Hispanic residents in Louisiana, a federal immigration crackdown aiming for 5,000 arrests has devastated an economy already struggling from ramped-up enforcement efforts this year, some business owners say, and had far-reaching impacts on both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

“Fewer and fewer people came,” said a crying Diaz, whose Taqueria La Conquistadora has been closed for several weeks now with both customers and workers afraid to leave home. “There were days we didn’t sell anything. That’s why I made the decision to close the business — because there was no business.”

On Wednesday, convoys of federal vehicles began rumbling back and forth down Kenner's main commercial streets as the Department of Homeland Security commenced the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations that have included surges in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. Bystanders have posted videos of federal agents detaining people outside Kenner businesses and at construction sites.

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino also made an appearance in the city, surrounded by agents in tactical gear, to tout to reporters the launch of the operation dubbed Catahoula Crunch, a name derived from the big game hound that is the Louisiana state dog.

“Why would they close businesses?” Bovino posted on the social platform X on Friday. “I’ve been in several businesses today in New Orleans, and the residents love us.”

The state's Hispanic population has boomed in the last two decades, with many of them arriving in the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild. In Kenner, just west of New Orleans between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, Hispanics make up about 30% of residents.

Diaz, who is from El Salvador, arrived in 2006 after years of doing farm work in Texas. She opened food trucks, earning enough to buy a home in Kenner, and her business has since expanded to a fleet of trucks and two brick-and-mortar restaurants.

Nearly all that is shuttered at the moment because of the crackdown, and Diaz is scraping by through making home deliveries to people fearful of being swept up by agents regardless of their legal status.

“They don’t respect anyone,” Diaz said. “They don’t ask for documents. They don’t investigate. They slap the handcuffs on them and take them away.”

Mayra Pineda, CEO of the Louisiana Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a Kenner resident for decades, fears for the future if the crackdown continues for months as planned.

“How are these business owners going to survive?” she said. “I don’t know. But let’s be clear — it’s not only on the Hispanic community but bad for all of us, for the economy in general.”

Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley described the federal immigration operation as a “prayer answered for us.”

The chief said while crime is decreasing in the city, he has raised concerns about violent crimes involving immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. The police department shared a dozen press releases documenting crimes – between 2022 and 2025 – where they say the person arrested had entered the country illegally. The cases included sex crimes, a murder, gang activity and shootings.

Based on the most recent crime report published by the Louisiana Statistical Analysis Center, in 2023 in Kenner a total of 4,436 total “offenses” were committed, which included 863 “crimes against persons.”

Conley said that while violent crimes are concerning, one of the “blights" that “we see and feel every day” are traffic stops and car accidents, that involve drivers who are illegal immigrants that are uninsured and unlicensed.

State Sen. Kirk Talbot, a Republican who represents a portion of Kenner, said he believes the federal operation will ultimately “benefit the city” and that residents who are in the U.S. legally have “nothing to be afraid of.”

“I think the people that come here illegally – who flee authorities and, especially, ones that have criminal records -- need to obey the law and they need to be caught and deported,” Talbot said.

While Kenner has closely worked with federal immigration agents before, especially under the 287(g) program that allows local police to question the immigration status of suspects in their custody, Conley said local officers are not currently aiding in the federal operation. However, he said, the department is ready to assist in the operation if asked.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday that federal agents have already made dozens of arrests, though the agency has not released a full list of people detained.

“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families, or their neighbors,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “In just 24 hours on the ground, our law enforcement officers have arrested violent criminals with rap sheets that include homicide, kidnapping, child abuse, robbery, theft, and assault.”

The office of Mayor Michael Glaser, a former police chief, declined to comment on his stance on the operation. But it said the crackdown “falls under federal jurisdiction” and the mayor expects all agencies operating in the city to conduct themselves “professionally, lawfully and with respect for our community.”

However, the city's police are among the hundreds of local and state law enforcement agencies nationwide that have signed agreements to be part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that authorizes them to hold detainees for potential deportation.

Sergio Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant and U.S. citizen who has lived in Kenner since 2010, said he has loved ones there who lack legal permission to be in the country and risk being detained or deported. He also worries that anyone who is Hispanic is at risk of abuse by federal agents, regardless of their immigration status.

While Perez considers Kenner home — a place where it is easy to find favorite dishes like “caldo de res,” a hearty beef and vegetable stew — he is prepared to leave the country if family members are deported.

“They don’t want us here,” Perez said. “It’s like you are in someone’s house and you don’t feel welcome. They’re just killing our spirit.”

Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Carmela Diaz speaks inside her closed restaurant in the midst of a Customs and Border Protection immigration crackdown in Kenner, La., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive at a Home Depot in Kenner, La.,Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A Customs and Border Protection agent exits a vehicle after agents apprehended two people during an operation Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Kenner, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Carmela Diaz poses inside her closed restaurant in the midst of a Customs and Border Protection immigration crackdown in Kenner, La., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Carmela Diaz speaks inside her closed restaurant in the midst of a Customs and Border Protection immigration crackdown in Kenner, La., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)