The Los Angeles Dodgers blocked ICE agents from using their stadium parking lot as a staging area for enforcement operations Thursday.
The team announced its move on social media, but did not explain its reasoning.
“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. Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled,” the team said.
Local news reported that dozens of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel had shown up at the stadium grounds in the morning.
Those images then drew a small crowd of anti-ICE demonstrators.
The Dodgers, a major league baseball team with deep roots in southern California’s Hispanic community, had been drawing criticism for not taking a stand against the ramp-up of ICE enforcement activities in the city.
Trump administration officials have said sanctuary jurisdictions like California and Los Angeles, which regularly decline to turn over illegal immigrants with criminal records to ICE for deportation, will draw more scrutiny from the agency. That means sending more officers into communities to arrest migrants at large.
That has sparked violent protests, with demonstrators attempting to breach federal buildings and violently disrupt ICE’s effort to make arrests.
President Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops to protect federal property and help escort ICE personnel on their rounds. That deployment is being challenged in court.
Mayor Karen Bass lifted a curfew on Wednesday that she had imposed on downtown Los Angeles to keep a lid on some of the more violent protests.
She said the curfew had served its purpose in preventing damage from “bad actors who do not care about the immigrant community.”
The Dodgers were scheduled to host the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.
