The Los Angeles Dodgers, facing mounting pressure from their Latino fan base, announced on Friday that they had committed $1 million in financial help for families of immigrants who have been “impacted by recent events in the region.”
The announcement, while oblique on exactly which “recent events” the team was responding to, came after days of calls from community leaders and fans to signal support for its heavily Latino fan base as federal immigration raids have been reported across the Los Angeles area. The raids over the past two weeks have stoked fear and anxiety among many immigrant families, especially Latinos.
While the team’s announcement fell short of denouncing the federal immigration enforcement efforts, as some fans had hoped for, the Dodgers said more “community efforts” would be shared soon.
“What’s happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected,” Stan Kasten, the president and chief executive of the Dodgers, said in a statement on Friday. “We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.”
The Dodgers, last year’s World Series champions and perennial contenders for a decade, carry weight nationally, but to walk through Dodger Stadium is to get a glimpse of how many Latino supporters make up the team’s fan base.
Songs in Spanish blare over the ballpark’s speakers in between innings. Restrooms are labeled in English and Spanish. Fans can opt for a Michelada over a regular ballpark beer.
That prevalence of Latino culture is why some Angelenos began to question why the Dodgers had been so quiet as immigration raids have been reported almost daily over the past two weeks in communities in and around Los Angeles.
In a statement, Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles thanked the Dodgers for the financial support.
“These last weeks have sent shockwaves of fear rippling through every neighborhood and have had a direct impact on our economy,” Ms. Bass said. “My message to all Angelenos is clear: We will stick together during this time and we will not turn our back on one another — that’s what makes this the greatest city in the world.”
Demands on the Dodgers to call out the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement grew on Thursday, when federal immigration agents were seen near a Dodger Stadium parking lot. Protesters quickly descended outside the ballpark to protest.
It was unclear exactly what unfolded outside the gates of Dodger Stadium on Thursday. The Dodgers said that ICE agents arrived at the ballpark and asked for permission to use the parking lots, but the team did not allow them. The Department of Homeland Security appeared to deny that claim.
“This had nothing to do with the Dodgers,” the department said on social media. adding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles were in the stadium parking lot “very briefly” but that they were not there for an operation.
Adding confusion to the episode, the Los Angeles branch of Enforcement and Removal Operations, which operates within ICE, said on social media that its agents were “never there.”
On Friday, more than 50 leaders signed a letter sent to Mark Walter, the chairman and controlling owner of the Dodgers, demanding that the team take a stand against ICE raids. The letter also asked that the team support local organizations that protect immigrants, and commit to ensuring that team property is not used to help immigration enforcement operations.
“This is the moment for the Dodgers to stand with the families whom masked agents are tearing apart,” the letter said. “Children who may have sat in your seats enjoying a game now come home with no parents to receive them and no word of their whereabouts or well being other than reports of inhumane treatment in detention centers across California and the Southwest.”
The letter noted that of the estimated $752 million the team made in revenue last year, about $300 million was generated by Latino families, who make up about 40 percent of the team’s fan base.
Hours before the Dodgers’ game on Friday, the gates around Dodger Stadium were quiet, but another protest was planned for Saturday.
The Dodgers have for decades maintained a large Latino fan base that was propelled in the 1980s when the Mexican pitching phenomenon Fernando Valenzuela debuted with the team and created a frenzy known as “Fernandomania.” Since then, the Dodgers have continued to have popular Latino players on the team, such as Adrián González.
Across Major League Baseball, Latino players have made up a large contingent of the league’s players born outside the United States, many of whom are able to play in the United States through special visas.
This year, nearly 30 percent of the league’s players were born outside the country, including 63 players from Venezuela and 26 from Cuba, according to Major League Baseball. Both countries were included in a partial travel ban issued by the Trump administration this month, but a statement from the White House detailing the ban did not mention P-1 or H2-B visas, which are commonly issued to professional baseball players born outside the United States, according to a University of Michigan study on Latino influence in baseball.
And President Trump, mindful that Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics in 2028 and that much of the 2026 World Cup will be played in the United States, has gone out of his way to shield athletes from his immigration and travel policies.
But the Dodgers’ relationship with its Latino fans has been especially complicated, and at times tense, over the years. Behind that tension is the origin story of how Dodger Stadium was built.
Before Dodger Stadium was built, the land was home to three communities — Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop — widely known as Chavez Ravine. Those who lived there, largely Mexican Americans, were displaced in the 1950s when the City of Los Angeles said the land was needed to build affordable housing. The housing was never built. Instead, a new stadium was later built for the Dodgers after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn.
In recent years, the City of Los Angeles has faced calls for reparations on the land that became Dodger Stadium. One group that had helped lead that effort is Buried Under the Blue, a nonprofit organization that has sought to raise awareness about the history of the displacement.
In a statement this week, Buried Under the Blue called out the Dodgers on the team’s silence and apparent reluctance to speak out about the raids.
“As ICE targets undocumented families in neighborhoods across Los Angeles, we see history repeating itself: fear, evictions, police violence,” the organization said. “Once again, the Dodgers — who profit from land that was stolen — are only speaking up because of public pressure.”
Emmett Lindner contributed reporting from New York.
