Despite photos showing ICE agents near the parking lot, ICE denied its presence near the ballpark on social media.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball organization announced on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had attempted to access their stadium’s parking lot, but were told they could not do so.
“This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the Major League Baseball team’s X account announced.
The news comes after several weeks of ICE raids in Los Angeles, with thousands of residents showing up to protest the raids and defend immigrant communities in the city. In response to those protests, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to support ICE in conducting its raids.
As word spread on social media that ICE agents were attempting to stage themselves near Dodger Stadium’s parking lot, several dozen protesters confronted them, chanting slogans and holding up signs decrying their actions. Los Angeles police stood between the protesters and the immigration agents, according to news reports.
In its own post on X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) downplayed its presence near the stadium, claiming that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicles used the lot “very briefly,” and that it was an action “unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
The X account belonging to ICE, meanwhile, denied that agents had been present near the stadium at all, despite eyewitness accounts of the incident.
“False. We were never there,” ICE claimed on X.
Sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that federal agents were outside the stadium’s parking lot in vehicles carrying detained immigrants, possibly to process them there. The agents were denied access to the lot, those sources said, confirming the report from the Dodgers organization.
A spokesperson for California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office blasted the immigration agents for their presence near Dodger Stadium, suggesting that they intended to intimidate people and strike fear into a fanbase that has a significant Latinx population.
“This is another example of the federal administration doing everything in their power to strike fear and hurt hard-working families,” said Newsom’s deputy director of communications Diana Crofts-Pelayo.
Several social media users lauded the organization for refusing to let ICE agents plan or conduct raids on their property.
“For the first time ever I am going to get myself a Dodgers baseball cap and cheer them on,” political author Charlie Angus wrote on Bluesky. “The team stared down ICE and put the run on them.”
“Bless the Dodgers for ejecting ICE! America’s pastime is baseball, not chasing down hardworking mothers and fathers,” the parody account called “God” said.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) also praised the organization for denying ICE access to its properties.
“The private sector, local and state officials DO NOT WORK FOR ICE. Pleased the Dodgers understand that fact,” Lieu wrote on social media. “I urge all people who don’t work for ICE to understand they do not need to grant any requests from ICE (unless ICE has a warrant).”
The baseball team itself, however, has been slow to follow through on promises it’s made to immigrant communities in the city. The Dodgers had intended to announce an initiative this week aimed at assisting immigrants and their families affected by the recent raids in Los Angeles. However, on Thursday, the organization said it would be delaying that announcement.
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