Pride Night 2026 came and went with relatively little fanfare or drama, all things considered. It is easy to forget that this time last year, tensions in Los Angeles surrounding the Dodgers were elevated, partly because Clayton Kershaw decided to doodle on his cap (not the subject of today’s essay) and partly because the city was being ravaged by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) raids that were rounding up citizens and immigrants alike.
The Dodgers organization finally stood up last
year, urged on by Enrique Hernández, broadcasting legend Jaime JarrĂn, and others, pledging $1 million to local charities to aid those affected by the ICE raids. On June 24, 2026, A.J. Perez of the Los Angeles Times reported that the Dodgers had fulfilled their pledge and Guggenheim Partners had divested their ties to the prison group actively working with ICE. Per Mr. Perez:
In total, the Dodgers donated $1.1 million, representatives for California Community Foundation and Labor Community Services — the two nonprofits that received the funds — told The Times.
“The Dodgers have been in L.A. for 68 years,” said Joseph Tomás McKellar, executive director of PICO California. “They’re beloved among immigrant communities in a way that no other sports team is. That gives the Dodgers cultural and financial power in the region. We applaud what they did, but they could do even more by exercising leadership.”
To understand the significance of the moves, we must recall the state of affairs at this time last year.
The Dodgers say no to the feds and pledge aid in 2025
Back in June 2025, the Dodgers were frustratingly silent on the ongoing controversy, including the front office, when Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Lon Rosen repeatedly said that the organization would not comment.
I was unsurprised when USA Today reported that multiple Dodgers players declined to discuss, on the record, the unrest in Los Angeles caused by ICE before Pride Night 2025. The closest that anyone playing got on the record was then-San Francisco Giants’ first baseman Dom Smith, a native of Los Angeles, who was willing to talk about ICE raids in Whittier:
“Talking to people there, they said to be careful. It’s kind of died down the last couple of days, and at the end of the day, we have a job to do.”
“My family is still down there, and it’s very sad, what’s going on, people being stripped away from their families,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking. Obviously there’s a right way to do things, and if you can put yourself in their shoes and you see a mother or father ripped away from a child and you don’t know where they’re going or for how long and those questions aren’t being answered, it’s traumatizing.
It seemed something had to give. Last year, leading up to Juneteenth, something did.
“This city adopted me.”
Five days before everything came to a head on Juneteenth 2025, something happened that shocked me to my very toes: Kiké Hernández unbent his knee and became the first active Dodger to publicly comment on the ICE raids in Los Angeles.
“I may not be Born & Raised, but this city adopted me as one of their own,” Hernández wrote in his post. “I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city. Los Angeles and Dodger fans have welcomed me, supported me and shown me nothing but kindness and love. This is my second home. And 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. #CityOfImmigrants.”
That same day, news also broke that current pregame analyst and former Dodger Adrian Gonzalez spoke out against ICE’s actions in Los Angeles. Things took a turn when the legendary announcer, Jaime Jarrin, spoke up on behalf of the protestors in both English and Spanish.
With Los Angeles Latino groups’ patience with the Dodgers’ inaction reaching its limit, on June 18, 2025, it was announced that a protest at Dodger Stadium was planned for June 21 at 2 p.m. Almost on cue, that same day, the Dodgers announced plans to assist immigrant communities of Los Angeles in response to the ICE raids.
ICE tries to come to Dodger Stadium
On Juneteenth 2025, the Dodgers denied ICE usage of their parking lots while carrying out immigration raids in Los Angeles. Tensions within Los Angeles had been rising due to aggressive ICE raids within the city that were ensnaring citizens and immigrants alike.
At the time of the denial, Eric Stephen posted an excellent timeline of the events at Dodger Stadium, covering real-time reporting from Jack Harris, then of the Los Angeles Times, and Molly Knight.
While folks rallied around the Dodgers for denying the government access, it is worth noting that the LAPD essentially shunted the government agents out of another exit out of the stadium to avoid media and the protestors, and that local police have used Dodger Stadium for staging purposes previously.
The Dodgers had announced plans to assist immigrant communities in response to the raids, but these plans were postponed to an unspecified date, while proclaiming they will do something, security still removes those with anti-ICE signage and clothing. The following day, on Friday, June 20, the dam finally broke, from Stan Kasten no less.
At the time, I thought $1 million was nothing to sneeze at. However, we would be remiss not to point out that the Dodgers are a multibillion-dollar organization. One million dollars is, and remains, essentially a rounding error or a minor tax write-off for this group.
Action does not occur in a vacuum. Had locals, including prominent voices within the organization, not stood up, the Dodgers would not have initially acted.
The Latino Fan’s Dilemma
Being a Dodgers fan the past few years has required a bit of mental gymnastics. Between less-than-perfect messaging on Pride Night, between silence on matters of importance to the city of Los Angeles (ICE raids in Los Angeles, among others), between silent approval for dubious infrastructure projects (see: the Dodgers Gondola Project), and delivering titles while prices at the ballpark keep going up and up, it’s sometimes hard to be a Dodgers fan.
Mark Walter is CEO of Guggenheim Partners, which had previously invested over $12 million dollars in GEO Group, a major operator of private prisons and immigration detention centers used by ICE. Walter also owns TWG Global, which partners with tech firms that help ICE track immigrants through surveillance software, and has a partnership with Polymarket, the same group that partnered with MLB, as reported in “Gambling in all but name.”
Considering that the Dodgers try to get the same community of people that the current government is targeting with gusto, one can’t help but see the contradiction or, at least, at times, feel like a sucker. From October 2025, Erick Galindo, L.A. Taco:
That hesitation has become a defining feeling for many of us—Dodger blue in our veins, but doubt in our hearts. Not because we’ve lost faith in the players themselves, but because we’re being asked to square our love for this organization with what some call politics, but what I consider basic human decency—the right of Latinos, especially immigrants, to exist in this country without being terrorized, demonized, and disappeared by unscrupulous men doing shady shit.
This summer, as ICE raids swept through Los Angeles—agents in unmarked vans patrolling Latino neighborhoods, families hiding indoors, streets going silent—the Dodgers stayed quiet.
To their credit, the Dodgers eventually stepped up, and the controversy died down. Baseball continued, with activists urging the Dodgers to follow through, despite owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE.
The Dodgers’ aid and Guggenheim’s divestment
That said, credit where credit is due, the Dodgers finally stepped up. Local activists pushed the Dodgers to both honor their pledge and have owner Mark Walter sell his company stock in GEO Group.
Per Mr. Perez, by the end of 2025, Guggenheim’s interest in GEO Group was about 10,000 shares, down from a million shares. By April 2026, Guggenheim did not own any shares of GEO Group. Neither Guggenheim nor the Dodgers has said why, and GEO Group deflected questions as to why back to Guggenheim.
Mr. Perez also reported where the Dodgers’ pledge went:
The California Community Foundation received $1 million, which worked with Los Angeles city officials to distribute $1,000 in direct relief to 1,000 households impacted by the immigration raids. The money was distributed through cash cards, according to the foundation. The Dodgers’ gift amounts to a quarter of the $4 million the foundation has raised for its Los Angeles Neighbors Support Fund, $3.3 million of which has been “deployed to impacted communities with new investments continuing to roll out,” according to the nonprofit.
The Dodgers also donated $100,000 to Labor Community Services, a partner of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, that provided more than 4,000 families with food assistance with the team’s donation.
“The Dodgers’ generous donation has enabled us to reach and assist more families throughout Los Angeles County with dignity and compassion, providing critical food assistance at a time when it is needed most,” Labor Community Services Executive Director Norma López said in a statement to The Times.
A spokesperson for Labor Community Services said no other pro sports team outside the Dodgers made a similar donation to help impacted immigrant families.
[Emphasis added.]
It may have taken longer than some or most may have wanted. While there may be more to do, the Dodgers’ ultimate actions here are an unalloyed good. It would be easy for these acts to be a one-off moment, but it is up to the same local activists to help ensure otherwise. For the final time, from Mr. Perez’s article:
“The Dodgers have a unique responsibility and they are an example of something we want to continue to see, especially as the World Cup and the Olympics come to L.A.,” said Carlos Martin Rodriguez, director of organizing for L.A. Voice, a multifaith coalition that organized several vigils and demonstrations when the raids were at their height. “I hope this wasn’t a singular moment, but the beginning of a movement.”
