There have also been reports of people from a range of countries, including Australia, being interrogated at the US border and deported.
Giuliani said every visa decision was a national security decision, but Trump had made a deliberate effort to cut application waiting times so people could enter the US legally.
The government had already scheduled an additional 300,000 visa appointments, he said, and waiting times had fallen significantly. Last month, Trump announced an expedited visa program for World Cup ticket holders.
“There is a fictional narrative out there that the president is not welcoming foreigners,” Giuliani said.
Asked about a Trump rant this week in which he branded people from Somalia “garbage”, Giuliani said: “The president has a unique style. I think it’s why he’s such an effective leader … why he actually is the consummate host for this incredible World Cup.”
There is also concern domestically about whether asylum seekers or undocumented migrants living in the US could be targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the World Cup.
Andrew Giuliani, the son of Rudy Giuliani, is the executive director of the White House World Cup taskforce.Credit: Bloomberg
In July, an asylum seeker who took his children to the Club World Cup final in New Jersey was arrested in the American Dream Mall car park and repatriated, according to Human Rights Watch.
Giuliani said he believed the man in question was illegally flying a drone. When pressed, he refused to rule out ICE raids at soccer stadiums during the World Cup.
“We’re having continuous conversations with this,” he said. “The president does not rule out anything that will help make American citizens safer.”
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Giuliani said the government expected 5 to 7 million international visitors would travel to the US for the event, which coincides with celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary of independence.
That dramatically exceeds earlier estimates of 1.2 million visitors, though FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed as many as 10 million people could visit the three co-hosting nations: Canada, Mexico and the US.
The latest Department of Commerce data shows overseas visitors to the US are down 2.5 per cent this year, driven by large declines from France and Germany. The number of Australians visiting the US has fallen by 5.6 per cent. When isolated to tourist visas – by far the biggest category – that increases to 6.4 per cent.
Giuliani pointed this masthead to a different statistic, saying that in the first six months of this year, foreign visitors to the US spent a record $US126.9 billion.
The Trump administration is also scrambling to co-ordinate better public transport options across 11 US host cities in a country where most people drive or ride-share to stadiums for concerts and major sporting events. For example, the venue for the final, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, has a capacity between 80,000 and 90,000, but typically, only 7000 to 11,000 would attend by public transport.
“The Department of Transportation is very aware that Americans travel differently from Europeans and South Americans,” Giuliani said.
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