(LOS ANGELES) Immigration rights groups and community activists have urged the Los Angeles Dodgers to skip their traditional White House visit following their 2024 World Series victory, intensifying a citywide debate over immigration enforcement and the team’s role in a community where many families have been directly affected by federal operations. Despite the calls to boycott, the Dodgers went ahead with the trip, sending a high-profile delegation of stars to Washington as protests, petitions, and public criticism continued to build at home.
The clash has grown sharper amid recent enforcement actions in Los Angeles. On November 4, 2025, federal immigration agents staged a large operation near Dodger Stadium, with eyewitnesses estimating about 100 agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the area. The show of force followed earlier incidents in which agents attempted to use Dodger Stadium parking lots as processing sites for immigration raids, a move that triggered protests and a petition signed by more than 50 community and religious leaders urging the team to publicly oppose the operations. The new action reignited the question of whether a storied baseball franchise should accept a celebration at the White House while the administration pursues aggressive tactics that have unsettled the city’s immigrant neighborhoods.
At the center of the backlash are specific, personal appeals from fans who say the team’s White House visit sends the wrong message at the wrong time. Joe Diaz, a 52-year-old Dodger fan from Boyle Heights, said:
“It hurts me to see the Dodgers there… Baseball is international … Everyone that he’s against is there at the White House. It stings a little bit to see the Dodgers going to the White House after knowing what this president is all about. For me, I will continue supporting the Dodgers. I don’t support today’s visit, but it’s just like everything else. There’s things that people do that you like, and there’s things people do that you don’t like. You’re still gonna be friends with them.”
His words, shared outside a neighborhood café, mirrored a larger tension: pride in a championship team, frustration at a tradition they feel clashes with the lived experience of immigrant families in East L.A. and Boyle Heights.
Others went further, arguing the custom itself should be reconsidered in light of the team’s fan base and Los Angeles’s demographics. Laura Espinoza, 42, from Boyle Heights and East L.A., said:
“Traditions are meant to be broken if they don’t serve the community that upholds them. I’ve always wanted to give them a chance, but … I don’t think I need anything further to confirm that it’s just not ever going to be my scene.”
Her view echoed the central point made by advocacy groups that urged the Dodgers to decline the White House visit: that, in this moment, the optics matter as much as the ceremony.
Those arguments gained momentum online, where criticism tied the celebration to recent actions by the Trump administration. Instagram user @jsatz23 commented: “Literally one month ago, this administration tried to erase Jackie Robinson. To go to and ‘celebrate’ with the same administration is beyond disgraceful. Jackie Robinson Day at Dodger Stadium this season is essentially a marketing ploy, since the team has no morals.” Another user, @rednezzie, wrote: “This President has attacked the people of LA with his threats and policies more than ANY US President. SHAME on the Dodgers for showing up for him, when he has never shown up for the people of LA. In turn, we the people will not be showing up to games this season.” The posts referenced a recent flashpoint, when the Department of Defense briefly took down a webpage honoring Dodgers legend Jackie Robinson before restoring it after public outcry, adding to the sense among some fans that the moment called for a stand rather than a photo opportunity.
The Dodgers, however, followed through with the traditional ceremony. Stars including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, and Kiké Hernández attended the White House visit, a showcase for a team that surged through October to deliver a title Los Angeles had craved. On the South Lawn, Clayton Kershaw called the trip:
“an incredible honor for me … to stand here today representing the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
He presented President Trump with a Dodgers jersey, a symbolic exchange that in other years might have been an uncomplicated celebration but this week became a lightning rod back home. The timing also placed the players at the center of a broader political argument over immigration in a city where the sport is woven into neighborhoods with deep roots in Mexico, Central America, and Asia.
Manager Dave Roberts, who previously said he would never visit a Trump White House, acknowledged the tradition and the invitation while addressing reporters.
“It’s certainly a huge honor to get the invitation to the White House. To my understanding, every World Series champion gets that honor, so it’s a great honor for all of us.”
His remarks underscored the team’s position that the White House visit is part of the standard ritual for Major League Baseball champions, even as the surrounding climate has made that ritual a point of contention.
Community leaders who urged the team to stay home tied their appeal directly to enforcement actions in Los Angeles, pointing to the operation near Dodger Stadium and to earlier attempts by federal agents to stage processing in the team’s parking lots. According to advocates, those moves brought the machinery of immigration enforcement into the physical space where families gather for games, creating fear and anger that did not fade with the end of the postseason. A petition organized by immigration rights groups framed the stakes in moral terms:
“Having the Dodgers visit Trump, a figure whose policies and rhetoric have often targeted and vilified immigrant communities, would be a betrayal.”
More than 50 community and religious leaders signed an earlier letter pressing the team to oppose the use of stadium facilities in enforcement actions, a rare direct request to a franchise that is often treated as a civic institution in its own right.
The organization has tried to position itself as sensitive to its surroundings, promising support for families affected by enforcement while steering clear of specific policy fights. After earlier raids drew protests across Eastside neighborhoods, Dodgers president Stan Kasten stated:
“We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles,”
following a pledge by the team of $1 million to assist families caught up in immigration operations. That commitment spoke to the team’s awareness of the fallout in schools, churches, and workplaces when arrests ripple through a community, even as the club resisted pressure to reject the White House invitation outright.
For many in Los Angeles, the immediate trigger was the sight of federal agents near the ballpark, a landmark that usually signals summer nights and families in blue jerseys. The presence of roughly 100 officers from ICE and CBP on November 4, 2025 amplified fears that enforcement would brush up against game-day life and team facilities. Advocacy groups said the proximity alone would deter some fans from attending future games and left others convinced the team should leverage its platform to push back publicly. Federal officials did not release a detailed breakdown of arrests from the operation; however, the show of force near the stadium crystallized a debate that supporters of the boycott say had been building for months.
The White House visit, meanwhile, presented a stark contrast: Ohtani and Betts smiling in photographs that, for some fans, sat uneasily alongside the stories of neighbors detained by agents. The tension also drew on the legacy of Jackie Robinson, whose name is invoked year after year on jerseys across Chavez Ravine. When the Department of Defense’s webpage honoring Robinson was briefly removed, then restored after criticism, it added fresh fuel to accusations that the administration’s cultural moves collide with the team’s history and values. To critics, accepting the invitation
“feeds the Dodgers into Trump’s propaganda machine”
and compounds the hurt felt by families navigating immigration arrests and uncertainty.
The organization’s calculus is not simple. The tradition of champions visiting the White House stretches back decades, and teams commonly frame it as an apolitical honor rather than an endorsement of policy. Front offices also balance the views of a national fan base and league expectations against the intense, localized demands of a city like Los Angeles. But the current environment has made neutrality difficult. When a franchise’s stadium is mentioned in the same breath as immigration processing sites, and when agents gather within view of familiar gates and parking decks, the symbolism of a handshake in Washington takes on added weight.
Players themselves have largely confined public remarks to the occasion. Kershaw’s description of the moment as
“an incredible honor for me … to stand here today representing the Los Angeles Dodgers”
was a reminder that, for athletes, the ceremony marks the pinnacle of a season’s work. Roberts’ comment that
“every World Series champion gets that honor”
tapped into the routine nature of the event, one embedded in the league calendar and media cycle. Yet in Los Angeles neighborhoods where families have been separated or live with the daily anxiety of an unexpected knock on the door, the White House visit landed less as routine and more as a choice with consequences.
Online, the dissent showed little sign of fading. The post by @jsatz23 accusing the administration of trying to erase Jackie Robinson, and the promise by @rednezzie that “we the people will not be showing up to games this season,” suggested that at least some fans are prepared to take their anger to the turnstiles. Petitions continued to circulate this week, building on earlier drives that collected signatures from clergy and community organizers. With the season’s celebrations now complete, the team faces a long winter of community events and outreach in a city where trust can be hard-won and quickly lost.
Advocacy groups say they are not demanding the Dodgers become a political actor but are asking the franchise to set clear lines when federal operations overlap with civic spaces and community life. The push to reject the White House visit, they argue, was a way to send a message that the club stands with immigrants when it counts, not only through donations but by drawing boundaries. In that view, the trip to Washington undermined the $1 million pledge and diluted the force of Kasten’s promise to
“support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.”
Team allies counter that the donation, youth programs, and year-round investments are the practical ways a ballclub can help families, while ceremonies in the capital should be understood as recognition of athletic achievement.
The issue is likely to linger into the next season, intertwining the Dodgers’ on-field story with off-field decisions about where they show up and who they stand beside. The team’s presence at the White House created indelible images; the images near the ballpark on November 4, 2025, with about 100 federal agents, created different ones that won’t easily be forgotten by fans in East L.A. and Boyle Heights. As petitions gather signatures and social media heats up, both sides see a test of what it means for a major sports franchise to be anchored in a city shaped by migration and mixed-status families.
The federal agencies at the center of the controversy have framed their operations as routine enforcement. Immigration policy is set in Washington, but its effects are felt block by block in Los Angeles, where youth coaches, parish leaders, and parent groups say the recent actions have already changed daily life. For official information about enforcement priorities and operations, the public can consult U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though community advocates note that the distance between policy pages and what families experience in real time can be vast.
As of November 5, 2025, the Dodgers’ White House visit had gone forward, with Ohtani, Betts, Teoscar Hernández, and Kiké Hernández among those in attendance, and with Kershaw’s words from the podium echoing in Washington. Back home, Joe Diaz’s reflection captured the ambivalence of many: pride in the Dodgers, disappointment in the decision, and a lingering hope that friendship with a team can survive disagreement. The coming months will show whether the organization’s outreach, its donation, and its public posture on immigration enforcement are enough to repair the rift that opened between a championship celebration and the realities outside the stadium gates.
This Article in a Nutshell
Community activists and immigration rights groups urged the Dodgers to skip their traditional White House visit after the 2024 title because recent enforcement near Dodger Stadium unsettled immigrant neighborhoods. On November 4, 2025, about 100 ICE and CBP agents staged an operation near the park, prompting protests and a petition from more than 50 community and religious leaders. The Dodgers attended the ceremony while reiterating a $1 million pledge to assist affected families, deepening debate over the team’s responsibilities to local communities.
