The Los Angeles Dodgers stood up to ICE. Will other franchises follow suit?

Nearly 30 percent of players in Major League Baseball are immigrants. One might expect more efforts to protect this workforce

Photo by Matthew LeJune on Unsplash

With a political party and its leader determined to force America back to the past, it was inevitable that politics would intersect with America’s pastime: baseball.

Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series Champions, took a stand against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, whether you believe this might depend on your vote in the 2024 presidential election. According to the Dodgers and various local and national news outlets, the organization told federal immigration agents to leave their property.

“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 team said in a statement posted on social media.

However, if you are part of a certain person’s cult, it apparently didn’t happen, as the ICE publicly declared its agents “were never there.”

“This had nothing to do with the Dodgers. (Customs and Border Protection) vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in an email to the Associated Press.

Despite the debate, the Dodgers are the ideal team for this situation, as they exemplify why it's impossible to keep sports separate from societal issues, especially when politics around President Donald Trump are involved. The team’s top player is from Japan, and their second-best player is a Black man named Mookie Betts. They’re led by a manager who is Black and Asian, and Magic Johnson is a member of their ownership group. Their clubhouse is a rainbow coalition. This diversity reflects not only the racial identities of the team members but also the vibrant mix found in Los Angeles itself.