Mexico City tightens security and caps crowds for Mexico-England match after 4 deaths

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico will double security and limit capacity at the monument known as the “Angel of Independence” and at the fan festival in Mexico City’s main square for Sunday's Mexico-England World Cup match after four people died during celebrations following Mexico’s win over Ecuador earlier this week.

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada on Friday announced the measures as she presented the pre- and post-match security plan following the deaths of four fans from asphyxiation and cardiac arrest.

As a World Cup host city and with the team advancing farther than it has in 40 years, Mexican fans have poured into the streets to watch the games and celebrate their wins after being priced out of the stadiums by the exorbitant cost of tickets. Mexican authorities have assured spectators that the country is safe and that they took all safety precautions to host after a February attack in Guadalajara following the death of a cartel boss raised concerns.

The decision to reinforce security comes after two women, ages 19 and 44, and a 48-year-old man died of asphyxiation on June 30 in the streets near the central Paseo de la Reforma. Emergency services also treated a 25-year-old man for epilepsy, a seizure and gastrointestinal bleeding. The man died shortly afterward in the hospital from cardiorespiratory arrest.

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the four deaths, which is still ongoing.

Brugada told reporters that there will be free entry to the Monument to Independence, popularly known as the “Angel,” and the Zócalo on Sunday, but with limited capacity for everyone’s safety.

Mexico City’s Secretary of Public Security, Pablo Vázquez, announced that only 25,000 people will be allowed access to the Angel monument, a popular spot for fans to celebrate victories. Once that limit is reached, fans will be directed to other locations along the Paseo de la Reforma, where multiple screens will be set up to watch the game and the celebrations.

A similar procedure will be followed at the Zócalo, the city’s main square, where access will also be closed once capacity is reached. Visitors will then be asked to go to one of more than 50 designated viewing areas throughout Mexico City to watch the game.

Security will be reinforced along Paseo de la Reforma with 6,000 officers, double the number deployed on June 30, Vázquez explained. There will be 7,500 police officers around Estadio Azteca, while 3,300 will be deployed in the Zócalo.

Vázquez explained that a security perimeter would be established in the areas near the Angel of Independence to control the flow of people. Street vendors and delivery drivers will not be allowed. Strategic closures of the Metro and Metrobus lines near Paseo de la Reforma will also be implemented.

Mexico City’s Secretary of Government, César Cravioto, announced that from the early morning of July 5 until the following day, the sale of alcoholic beverages will be prohibited on the streets of the city center. Consumption will only be permitted in banquet halls, restaurants, hotels, private clubs, movie theaters, theaters and auditoriums.

The city’s Secretary of Civil Protection, Myriam Urzúa, urged fans to avoid the crowd games that have become popular, including “Want to Fly!,” where people are thrown into the air and caught by the crowd, and “Shall We Swim!,” where the crowd advances in unison to the song popularized by the character Dory in the Disney movie “Finding Nemo.”

Under heavy security, England players and coaches arrived at their hotel in the Santa Fe area, in the western part of the capital, late Friday night.

Dozens of police officers secured the arrival, while fans waited to applaud the team as it passed by. Personnel from the Army, the National Guard and local police from México City were among those protecting the players.

At least for the first night, there was no massive gathering of fans — unlike the situation with Ecuador during the previous match, when dozens of supporters turned up outside the team hotel to make noise and deprive Mexico's rivals of sleep.

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Fans take photos as the England team bus arrives at the hotel where they will stay in Mexico City ahead of its World Cup round of 16 soccer match against Mexico, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Police officers deploy outside the hotel where the England team will stay in Mexico City ahead of England's World Cup round of 16 soccer match against Mexico, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

The England team bus arrives at a hotel in Mexico City ahead of England's World Cup round of 16 soccer match against Mexico, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Soccer fans gather for a watch party for the World Cup soccer match between Mexico and Ecuador, at the base of the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Soccer fans get revved up at a watch party on Reforma Ave., near the Angel of Independence monument, for the World Cup soccer match between Mexico and Ecuador, in Mexico City, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Soccer fans get revved up at a watch party for the World Cup match between Mexico and Czechia on Reforma Ave., near the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Soccer fans get revved up at a watch party for the World Cup match between Mexico and Czechia on Reforma Ave., near the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people during July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures.

The spike in immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive.

The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press.

As part of the surging arrest numbers over recent weeks, ICE officers have made arrests at traffic stops. They've increasingly relied on state and local law enforcement partners who are assuming immigration enforcement duties. And they have started to arrest people from Haiti who've seen their protections from deportation stripped away.

The new arrest numbers show the administration “didn’t stop the enforcement,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for more immigration restrictions.

“They changed the tactics and are, if anything, being more effective.”

Immigration arrests the month before Trump entered office hovered a little over 8,000 a figure largely made up of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. During Trump’s first year in office the numbers started climbing as the administration loosened restrictions on where and who ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars.

By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January that sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall in February. After remaining stagnant for months, the numbers surged in June.

Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, in a sign of how important those states have become to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Both states have leaned heavily into cooperation agreements with ICE called 287g agreements that allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal immigration enforcement.

In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration’s immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. But his tenure has been marred by a number of fatal shootings of immigrants in encounters with ICE officers. And the figures show Mullin hasn’t shifted the agency from President Donald Trump’s vision for mass deportations.

Under Mullin's predecessor, Kristi Noem, immigration enforcement was often characterized by high-profile operations that targeted specific Democratic cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Operations often led by former Border Patrol agent Greg Bovino were blasted out on social media videos showing officers bursting out of moving vans to chase people or rappelling from helicopters onto apartment rooftops.

But Krikorian said those tactics were “provoking a lot of ordinary people, turning them off even if they liked the idea of the immigration law being enforced."

The spike in arrests comes as the agency, infused with billions of dollars last summer by Congress, has also hired 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents.

Patricia Quiñonez, a journalist at Utahlozanos, which covers the Venezuelan immigrant community in Utah, said immigration arrests during traffic stops have increased sharply in recent months.

“They stop you for whatever reason — for example, you don’t have a drivers’ license, your vehicle tags are expired, your windows are more tinted than what is allowed. From there, they take advantage of the situation and ask about immigration.”

People with valid work permits and pending asylum claims are among those arrested, said Quiñonez, who believes they are being targeted by race.

Associated Press writers Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.

FILE - A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge in New York, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

FILE - A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge in New York, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)