U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted staging near Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, prompting the property’s owners to tell them to leave.
Dozens of federal agents clad in tactical gear, most hiding their faces, were using the stadium exterior as a meeting place before fanning out in the surrounding neighborhoods.
According to ABC7, Los Angeles elected officials alerted the stadium to ICE’s presence, prompting the owners of the LA Dodgers organization to tell the agents to leave the property.
As of 11am local time, only a few federal officers were still at the site, according to ABC7.
“We’ve been in communication with the mayor’s office, with the Dodgers, with Dodgers security, about seeing if they can get them moved off their private property,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez told the outlet.
The Dodgers issued a statement on Thursday afternoon confirming that it asked the ICE 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 on X. “Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled.”
The Dodgers as an organization have been largely silent on the ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles, but the decision today may signal that they’ll be picking a side soon,
According to the Los Angeles Times, the organization is reportedly planning to announce initiatives meant to support immigrant communities impacted by the raids.
On Saturday, the singer Nezza shrugged off the team’s reported request to perform the National Anthem in English. Instead, she sang in Spanish.
“I just felt like I needed to do it. Para mi gente,” she said. “Safe to say I’m never allowed in that stadium ever again,” she said in a video explaining what happened.
The Dodgers released a statement after the incident saying there we “no hard feelings” and that the team “would be happy to have her back.”
Mike Madrid, a GOP strategist, said on Thursday that people critical of the Dodgers’ silence may have spoken too soon.
“The Hot Takes attacking the Dodger organization appear to have been wrong – or misguided at best. This is a big move by a major organization with a global brand. Haven’t seen this from any comparable entity,” he wrote on X.
The incident occurred before a game against the team’s longtime rival, the San Francisco Giants, and on the same day as the “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump.
ICE’s raids in LA earlier this month was a flashpoint that kicked off massive protests in the city, which then spun off into nation-wide demonstrations.
Trump mobilized the National Guard — against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom — and sent the federalized soldiers alongside U.S. Marines into the city to crush the protests.
The president announced late on Tuesday that he was sending another 2,000 federalized troops to LA to try to stamp out the protests.
A spokesperson for the LAPD told CNBC that there have been no protester arrests since Saturday.
LA Mayor Karen Bass said that crime prevention efforts paired with a city-wide curfew have been successful in cutting down on violent encounters between federal agents and protesters.
“The curfew, coupled with ongoing crime prevention efforts, have been largely successful in protecting stores, restaurants, businesses and residential communities from bad actors who do not care about the immigrant community,” Bass said in a press statement on Tuesday.
