This story was jointly reported and edited by Aaron Sanchez-Guerra and Elizabeth Baier of WUNC and Claudia Rivera Cotto and Walter Gomez of Enlace Latino NC .

The campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was painted green and red on the day that El Tri, as the Mexican men’s national soccer team is known, faced off against Turkey on the grassy pitch of Kenan Memorial Stadium earlier this summer.

Among the several thousand Mexicans who flocked to the game was Chay de La Garza, a native of Guadalajara and a diehard fan.

As the game neared kick-off, recent headlines weighed on his mind.

“I expected to see more Mexicans,” De la Garza, 43, told WUNC in Spanish. “And well, I saw in the last few days what has been happening with the immigration issue.”

De la Garza was r

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