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Visa issues may leave Jamaican club short-handed against LA Galaxy in Champions Cup

By The Associated Press

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Mount Pleasant, a team from the Jamaican Premier League, is bracing to be without as many as 10 players on Wednesday when it takes on the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer in a CONCACAF Champions Cup matchup.

The reason: Those players, including six from Haiti, were unable to get visas to enter the U.S. for the match, Jamaican officials said.

Officials said Monday the match is still set to be played as scheduled, even while the Jamaican club — which plans to add younger players from the academy level if necessary — and CONCACAF seek a solution. The U.S. has travel restrictions on citizens from some nations, including Haiti, though there are mechanisms that can assist athletes in some cases.

The Jamaican club has been dealing with the issue since at least last week, apparently to no avail.

The match is the first of a two-leg Round of 16 matchup in the tournament, with the second leg set to be played in Kingston, Jamaica on March 19.

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

NYPD says dozens rescued from human trafficking during World Cup

By WTOP Staff
▶ Watch Video: Inside look at security preparations for World Cup Forty-three people, including seven minors, were rescued from human traffickers during the World Cup matches in the New York City area, according to the New York City Police Department's Special Victims Unit.The rescue operations were carried out between June 11 and July 19 by specialized NYPD detectives who arrested 89 individuals."The surprise was really the outpouring of support behind the mission and the collaboration with all our partners," said Inspector Gary Marcus, commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit.Those rescued, largely the victims of sex trafficking, are now being supported with an array of social services for the victims, including food, housing and counseling.The 87 operations carried out during the World Cup have generated new leads, officials said, and law enforcement agencies are building more cases based on the investigations already underway."We have ongoing investigations now as a result of these operations," an NYPD official told CBS News.Major sporting events are known to law enforcement as hotbeds of human trafficking.Years in advance, the NYPD devoted significant resources to preparing for the World Cup. Eight matches were played at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, including the final on Sunday."When we talk about the outreach and the prep we do, a large part of that involved visiting the known sex offenders, particularly the known human traffickers, in our registry," Marcus said. "Whether they're on parole or probation for human trafficking, we visited them to make sure they're compliant with the terms of their release, and secondly, to let them know that the NYPD is watching."The matches were held in multiple cities around the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Preparations to secure those games and prepare for crimes like human trafficking were coordinated between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.Police departments in many locations that hosted World Cup matches have made arrests and rescues connected to human trafficking, including in Georgia, New England and Missouri. Nationally, there were more than 673 arrests on human-trafficking charges made during the World Cup, and 61 adults and 13 minors rescued, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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