Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin has suggested the Somalia referee denied entry to the US for the World Cup was turned away due to criminal ties as he slammed ‘left wing media’ for backlash on the decision.
The New York Times revealed this week that Omar Artan, named Africa’s best referee in 2025, has a similar name to a man linked to the Al Shabab extremist group. It was found in a search of the sanctions list on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s website.
‘They asked me several times if I had ever met representatives of Al Shabab,’ Artan said. ‘I explained to them I knew nothing about this military group, that I was only in the United States to do my job as a referee.’
There is no evidence Artan is linked to terrorism. But in a withering response to critics of the USA’s border security police, Mullin dismissed the global outcry against him being refused entry.
Artan was turned away at Miami International Airport on Saturday, officially over unspecified ‘vetting concerns’, sparking widespread condemnation across the globe.
Speaking Thursday on the day the tournament begins in Mexico, Mullin dismissed the outrage and insisted the moves were simply part of keeping people safe.
Markwayne Mullin slammed hte outcry at the Somalian World Cup referee kicked out the US
Omar Artan, named Africa’s best referee in 2025, was turned away at the border in Miami
‘We’re not going to allow people that are perceived to have criminal ties to come into this country,’ Mullin said.
‘I don’t care what your situation is. I’m not going to get into why we denied this individual (Artan) but there is a reason why this person was denied.
‘Now the left media wants to go out there and report this guy is a victim because we are anti-Somalia. No, we’re not.
‘We work closely with FIFA and the administration on a regular basis. We talk to FIFA and their directors constantly. Anybody that was denied, we made the case for and showed them why they were denied.’
Mullin refused to detail any specific nature of Artan’s case but pointed to the Iran team that will be competing in the United States as proof of cases being assessed by individual merit.
As well as Artan, a photographer for the Iraq team was denied entry while their star player Aymen Hussein was detained before being eventually allowed in.
‘Iran chose a difficult path – if there was any country we weren’t going to allow in here, Iran would probably be the reason why, but we did,’ Mullin said.
‘We worked closely with the individuals, with restrictions. There were more than just these two, there were multiple individuals.
‘We have a World Cup here, we have got a lot of countries that don’t exactly have access to the United States and we did a phenomenal job on getting as many people cleared as we could.
‘But some people, you couldn’t clear. And that’s the way it works with getting a visa to come into this great country.’
The Iran team is based in Mexico and will fly into the US and leave on the same day as its three games against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt.
Fans and journalists from Iran, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Senegal and other countries were also refused permission to travel to the USA.
