Thursday night’s matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres was overshadowed by a standoff involving federal immigration authorities or at least the perception of one.
Dodgers vs. Padres game overshadowed by ICE standoff. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP)(AFP)
The Dodgers caused a stir early in the day when the team’s official X account claimed that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had attempted to gain access to the stadium’s parking lot. They denied the agents entry. “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 announced.
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Will Dodgers vs Padres be played?
Yes. Scheduled for 7:10 PM PDT, the Dodgers vs. Padres game was expected to draw a crowd of over 50,000 fans. The energy around the stadium was already buzzing thanks to a celebrity softball game hosted by All-Star Mookie Betts at 5:30 PM.
Despite the Dodgers’ assertion of an attempted raid, the Department of Homeland Security swiftly pushed back on the claim, suggesting, “This had nothing to do with the Dodgers,” per the agency’s X post. “CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
One ICE spokesperson told The New York Post that this was not a planned raid but merely a staging area.
Still, seeing several DHS vehicles and masked officers in the vicinity of the stadium in the Elysian Park district raised the eyebrows of people in the neighbourhood, especially considering that there have been tense relations between the city and federal immigration agents in the past. There were no arrests reported, but tensions remained.
The Los Angeles Times also reported that while the Dodgers didn’t call on the LAPD to remove the federal agents, they did request assistance when a group of anti-ICE protesters gathered outside the stadium gates later in the day.
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On Thursday, former Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced that ICE would resume workplace raids targeting farms, hotels, and other businesses. “We will concentrate on worksites on a prioritized basis just like we do at large operations,” Homan said at the White House.