LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday blocked federal immigration agents from entering their stadium as dozens of ICE protesters gathered outside the venue, the team said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The baseball organization said on social media<\/a> that federal agents working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at the stadium Thursday and “requested permission to access the parking lots.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the Dodgers said, adding that their evening game against the San Diego Padres will go on at the stadium as scheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICE responded to the Dodgers on social media<\/a>: “False. We were never there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demonstrators outside the stadium’s gates were seen holding signs and chanting “ICE out of L.A.” and “ICE go home” as several dark SUVs stood on the opposite side of the road. Some federal agents appeared to be wearing Homeland Security uniforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis had nothing to do with the Dodgers,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to McLaughlin, Customs and Border Protection vehicles “were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The federal agents who showed up were turned away from entering the stadium gates, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not immediately clear whether or how their presence was connected to immigration operations reported around the city Thursday, the sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said the agents’ presence at Dodger Stadium was intended to contribute to unease over the immigration raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is another example of the federal administration doing everything in their power to strike fear and hurt hard-working families,” the governor’s deputy director of communications, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eunisses Hernandez, a Los Angeles City Council member, told NBC News<\/a> she got 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said residents asked her to come “check things out because this is Dodgers property right here and what’s happening is outrageous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Los Angeles police were called, Hernandez said. They arrived in tactical gear around 11:30 a.m. and started moving protesters out of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are out here because they don\u2019t want to see their families torn apart. They don’t want to see more workers taken from their jobs,” Hernandez said at the site of the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources said the Dodgers have cooperated with law enforcement in the past, letting them use parking lots around the stadium for staging purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBusinesses and corporations have the power to say, ‘Not on my property,’ so we\u2019re waiting to see that movement happen here,\u201d Hernandez told NBC Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As anti-ICE demonstrations raged across Los Angeles this month, many residents have called on the Dodgers to support immigrant communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The criticism comes as Dodgers owner Mark Walter bought another renowned Los Angeles sports team<\/a>, the Lakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dodgers, the defending World Series champions, reportedly have plans<\/a> to announce a sweeping initiative to assist immigrant communities affected by recent ICE raids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Thursday’s Juneteenth holiday, the team plans a celebration of Black Heritage Night as it faces an opportunity to sweep the Padres in four games, with play scheduled for 7:10 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of L.A.’s star players, Kike Hern\u00e1ndez,\u2002released a statement this week<\/a> to show his support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am saddened and infuriated by what\u2019s happening in our country and our city,” the statement reads. “I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused, and ripped apart. All people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity, and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n