How football has helped immigrants make a home in the US

The Fifa World Cup's power to unite people has once again been illustrated at this year's finals, and one football pitch in New England is proving how the game can change lives far away from the spotlight.

For the immigrants and refugees who play pick-up matches at Kennedy Park in Portland, Maine, the sport is the common bond.

But the ties they have established have recently been tested by the political climate in the United States, as President Donald Trump's administration implements strict immigration policies during his second term in office.

For teenager George Lusolo, football felt familiar in a country that was not.

Now 19, he arrived in the US from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 seeking asylum alongside his mother.

"I really didn't know the language. I didn't know the people," he told BBC Sport Africa.

"I was still a kid so everything was really difficult for me and my mom."

After time in detention in Texas and then a shelter in New York, George eventually settled in Portland.

While his asylum claim was successfully processed, he saw posts about a game of football on social media.

"What was really exciting to me was there's people like me playing in this field," the teenager said.

"I came here, I played, it was really fun.

"Soccer is my therapy. I've always played since I was a kid in Kinshasa.

"When you're playing with people that are from the same place from you, from the same struggle, it really feels really nice."

What began as an informal gathering on the asphalt in Kennedy Park in 2021 has grown into a community where people from dozens of countries share a love of the beautiful game.

According to Deji Kuribanza, another Congolese immigrant who arrived in the US via Angola, they find their feet through the universal language of football.

"Everybody does not need to speak in one language," the 18-year-old said.

"Just point to your feet [or] some part in your body and ask for the ball. It's a really cool thing."

Last year the immigrant communities across Maine were shaken by raids carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Migration Policy Institute, an independent, non-partisan organisation that seeks to improve immigration and integration policies, estimates that at least 400,000 people have been arrested by ICE since January 2025.

The US government says those targeted pose a threat to public safety and national security, while the Department of Homeland Security - which runs ICE - told the BBC that people who are in the country legally have "nothing to worry about".

However, rights groups argue the crackdown has swept up innocent people who pose no risk to society.

That was the case at Kennedy Park.

"Players and their families were too afraid to leave their homes because of the danger that ICE created for them," said Anthony Fiori, who coordinates the pick-up games.

"Students missed a couple weeks of school because of it.

"ICE created a lot of fear. They were doing a lot of harm here to the community."

But the football community stepped in, organising over 70 grocery deliveries to those who did not want to venture out at the height of the raids.

Kennedy Park also led the campaign to free 17-year-old Joel Andre, a participant in the pick-up games, and his family from detention.

They succeeded after four months, but he still bears the psychological scars from his experience.

"They were in a facility where the food is inadequate, some of the rooms are ice cold," Todd Pomerleau, the attorney who took on the case, told the BBC.

"Joel is a soccer star in Maine, a bright kid. He has a lot of hope for his future.

"But you can tell he'll never be the same.

"I don't think anyone that goes through this is ever the same. They need counselling, religion, friends, family."

Joel's family's initial asylum application from DR Congo was denied by the US.

The family then travelled to Canada to seek asylum, without realising that an agreement between the two nations means you can only pick one of them in which to make a claim.

That caused the family to be detained by ICE, and they are now fighting their case for an asylum application in a US federal court.

Meanwhile, the immigrants and the refugees think that being seen playing soccer may help them gain acceptance in the US.

"I feel like some people just see immigrants as these kind of people that have nowhere else to be and they come in their country and don't do anything," Deji said.

"There's a lot of American people that watch us, just passing by, and they see immigrants that talk and be happy and just having a good time.

"I feel like [it] just painted different pictures about immigrants in their mind."

Anthony's own family history in Maine stretches back nine generations, and he believes the benefits of the community at Kennedy Park are clear to see.

"Having a place where people of very different cultural backgrounds, different nationalities, different generations can all intermingle and connect and become friends is just really special - especially in a state like Maine that overall is not that diverse," he said.

The American dream might not be exactly as the immigrants had hoped, but with the World Cup being held in the US, some are still allowing themselves to dream big.

"Having [World Cup] games a couple of states away from me, I never experienced something like this before," Deji said.

"There's a fire in me burning to be part of that.

"And that's one of my dreams, just to be on the world stage."

George also harbours his own ambitions of playing professionally, representing DR Congo.

With the Leopards having reached the last 32 at their first World Cup in over half a century, there has been plenty to celebrate for the Kennedy Park players during the tournament.

Because whether it is the Fifa World Cup or a game in the park, football is the same wherever you are from.