What to Know
- Protesters gathered on a road leading to Dodger Stadium Thursday after U.S. Border Patrol agents were seen outside the stadium gate.
- In a post on X, the Dodgers said the federal agents were denied after requesting access to the hilltop venue's vast parking lots.
- In a reply, the Department of Homeland Security said the agents were briefly in the parking area "unrelated to any operation or enforcement."
- Earlier Thursday, federal agents detained people near a Home Depot in Hollywood. Another operation was conducted at a San Fernando Home Depot, the city said.
- Immigration enforcement operations reported around Southern California sparked days of protests this month in Los Angeles and other communities.
Federal agents were denied entry Thursday morning after requesting access to parking lots at Dodger Stadium, where a group gathered at an entrance to protest recent immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles.
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WATCH HEREThe masked agents in protective vests marked U.S. Border Patrol were seen outside the stadium on the side of a road leading to Gate E, where several protesters gathered on a day when immigration enforcement operations were reported outside Home Depot stores in Hollywood and San Fernando, a Glendale car wash and other locations in the LA area. In a social media post, the team said the agents were denied entry to the parking lots inside the hilltop venue overlooking downtown Los Angeles.
"This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots," the team said in a post on X. "They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled."
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SIGN UP The agents, identified by authorities as Customs and Border Patrol personnel, showed up in multiple vehicles and left at about midday in SUVs.
In a reply to the Dodgers post, the Department of Homeland Security said, "This had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement."
In another reply to the team's post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its agents were not at the location.
Los Angeles Council member Eunisses Hernandez, who was in the crowd outside Dodger Stadium, said the federal agents appeared to be using the location as a staging area. About two dozen people showed up at the gate late Thursday morning in protest and LAPD officers responded to the scene.
Some members of the crowd chanted, "ICE out of LA."
The Dodgers, who host the San Diego Padres Thursday night, were expected to make an announcement Thursday about a new initiative to assist immigrant communities impacted by the recent federal crackdown. Details about the plan were not available early Thursday afternoon.
The franchise with deep ties to Latino community is one of 12 major professional sport franchises in Los Angeles, two of which have issued public statements on ICE raids and protests in the city with a vast and diverse immigrant population and sports fan base. Statements were issued from Angel City FC and LAFC in early June after a series of immigration enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area.
Immigration enforcement operations reported around Southern California sparked days of protests this month in Los Angeles and other communities. The Department of Homeland Security has said the operations, including ICE raids at businesses, will continue as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation plan, a central promise of his presidential campaign.
President Donald Trump said Sunday in a social media post that he has directed federal immigration authorities to expand operations in Los Angeles and other cities.
The administration has highlighted arrests involving undocumented individuals with violent crime convictions. Those who have been caught up in the nationwide raids include asylum seekers, people who overstayed their visas and migrants awaiting their day in immigration court.
The vast majority of resulting protests have been in part of downtown Los Angeles near federal buildings, including a federal detention center. Marines and federalized National Guard troops were sent to LA by the Trump administration over objections from state and local leaders.
California is home to 10.6 million immigrants, more than any other state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The Pew Research Center estimates that 1.8 million immigrants in California were undocumented in 2022, a figure that dropped from 2.8 million in 2007.
Most of the state's immigrant population is in large coastal counties, like Los Angeles County, where about 3.5 million people -- or about 35 percent of the county's population -- are immigrants, according to the 2024 State of Immigrants in Los Angeles County report from the USC Dornsife research institute. There are about 809,000 undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, which has a population of 9.6 million, according to the report.
