Democrats, pro-migration groups, and California’s media are dragging the Los Angeles Dodgers into uncomfortable migration politics with dramatic claims that the sports team was somehow helping ICE’s deportation efforts.
Los Angeles Police officers stand guard as protesters gather in front of one of the parking lot entrances at Dodgers Stadium, where federal immigration agents were denied entry, in Los Angeles, California on June 19, 2025. Federal immigration agents were barred from entering Dodger Stadium on June 19 after requesting access to the Major League Baseball team’s grounds, the team confirmed. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived at the stadium and “requested permission to access the parking lots,” the Dodgers said in a statement. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
NBC News has started the fight already at 12:23 Pacific time, with a live report by a pro-migration presenter, Jacob Soboroff:
Eunisses Hernandez, a Los Angeles City Council [Democratic] member, told NBC News she received calls early in the morning that “federal agents were staging here at the entrance of Dodgers Stadium. We got pictures of dozens of vehicles and dozens of agents.”
She said her constituents asked her to come “check things out because this is Dodgers property right here and what’s happening is outrageous.”
Los Angeles police were called in, Hernandez said. They arrived in tactical gear at around 2:25 p.m. ET and started moving protesters out of the way.
The Dodgers tried to downplay the story by posting a mid-afternoon tweet to their fans, saying:
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.
After the Dodgers had posted their afternoon tweet, the deportation agency said it included false information:
The Department of Homeland Security also responded to the Dodgers:
This had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.
Shortly after, independent reporter Ali Bradley explained the alarm:
I just talked with CBP sources with knowledge of what happened today at Dodger Stadium: CBP teams went to Hollywood Home Depot to make apprehensions. They did, they were going to transfer them to transport vans off Sunset Blvd, but when things escalated outside of Home Depot they went to an open parking lot at Dodger Stadium to make the consolidated transfer. Agents say no one came over and told them to leave.
Early on Thursday, the Dodgers were on edge because they were being pressured to denounce the federal government’s enforcement of the nation’s popular immigration laws. The pressure is part of the Democratic establishment’s determination to prevent the deportation of at least two million illegal migrants from the state’s combination of extreme wealth and extreme poverty:
The state-funded, pro-immigration group CHIRLA was also ready that morning to blow the story up. A sports writer for the LA Times posted on X:
There were a few dozen protesters outside the stadium gates later in the afternoon, including members of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA “The fact that these raids continue is what we Angelenos should be very concerned about,” said CHIRLA member Jorge-Mario Cabrera, who was in contact with fellow members monitoring activity at the stadium Thursday. “Dodger Stadium is a place where Angeleno families come and have fun.”
But NBC’s Soboroff was also ready to launch the local fuss into a national story via his choreographed interview with Hernandez.
As a handful of CHIRLA supporters were chanting protests off-screen, he invited Hernandez to make her rehearsed pitch for the federal government to allow large-scale illegal migration into the state, regardless of the huge damage to local Americans and their communities. “What’s the way forward?” Soboroff asked Hernadez:
She quickly ran through the Democrats’ poll-testing talking points:
I think the way forward is for the federal government to understand that [illegal] immigrants are part of Los Angeles, 1.3 million [illegal] immigrants live here. We have entire economies that benefit and thrive off the work of immigrants, Dodgers — they thrive off the fan base that is Latino, off the workers that are Latino. They’re not a detriment to our city or community. They are a benefit. They make our city thrive.
NBC staffer Soboroff validated Hernández’s controversial claim: “If you want to get an answer from somebody who knows what’s going on here, we just got it,” he said.
Soboroff is an advocate for more migration into the city of Los Angeles, where his father — Steve Soboroff — is a leading real-estate developer. Migration causes rents to rise, so raising real estate values.
In January, LA Mayor Karen Bass appointed Jacob Soboroff’s dad to the task of cleaning up the city after the disastrous fires. According to a statement from the Mayor’s office:
Mayor Karen Bass today announced that she has appointed Steve Soboroff to serve as the Chief Recovery Officer for the City of Los Angeles to kickoff the City’s massive rebuild and recovery effort, which was initiated by her Emergency Executive Order earlier this week. Working directly with her and with the assistance of the full breadth of her Administration and City Departments, he is charged with recommending a comprehensive City strategy for rebuilding and expediting the safe return of residents, workers, businesses, schools, nonprofits, libraries and parks in areas devastated by the fires that started last week.
The younger Soboroff also worked with the pro-migration lobbyists for the West Coast investors at FWD.us. With their aid, he produced and promoted a movie in favor of illegal migration.
Many Dodgers fans are strongly opposed to their team being dragged into the ethnic politics created by the Democrats’ combination of migration lobbies, business interests, and media performers: