President Trump shakes hands with Shohei Ohtani during the Dodgers’ visit to the White House in April to celebrate their 2024 World Series victory.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU SPORTS EDITOR
Nikkei Progressives have added their collective voice to a local drive urging the L.A. Dodgers to decline an invitation to meet with President Trump at the White House, in celebration of their World Series victory earlier this month.
On Nov. 5, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network held a press conference outside Dodger Stadium to call on the back-to-back champions to consider the suffering inflicted on the residents of Los Angeles as a result of the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement operations in and around Los Angeles.
“The Los Angeles Dodgers have always been more than a baseball team – they’re part of the spirit of who we are as a city,” NDLON said in an online post that accompanied a public petition to sway the team against meeting with Trump. “The team represents our neighborhoods, our families, and our shared love for our diverse communities.
“But right now, our community, our city are under siege, we need them to stand with us, on the right side of history.
By midday Tuesday, nearly 18,000 letters had been sent using an online form accompanying the petition.
“Since the beginning of the year when Trump took control of the White House, he has done nothing but to expand his powers, violate the rule of law, target communities/people of color and his political enemies, and severely damage the public infrastructure,” Nikkei Progressives said in a statement released Tuesday.
“Particularly since June 6 when ICE agents raided our communities (including Little Tokyo) and kidnapped random people, we have seen Trump’s cruel, reckless policies play out on our streets.”
Other organizations joining the calls for the Dodgers to decline the invitation include the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, Inclusive Action, SEIU 721 and All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of NDLON, said many fans and residents have been conflicted over celebrating the team’s win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We celebrate as we weep the families that have been devastated by the mass deportations,” Alvarado said, noting that the Dodgers were welcomed by Trump last April, to be congratulated for last year’s World Series victory over the New York Yankees. Just two months after that meeting, the Trump Administration launched widespread and often violent immigration sweeps in Los Angeles.
“We thoroughly enjoyed the play of the L.A. Dodgers this season, many of us cheering on the team from our favorite spot in Little Tokyo – Far Bar,” Nikkei Progressives said. “We loved watching this incredibly diverse, multinational team win the World Series in front of the beautifully different neighborhoods that make up L.A.
“The Latino community in particular has always been a bastion of support for the Dodgers (despite the destruction of the Chavez Ravine neighborhood), and yet this very community has suffered the most under Trump. ICE agents have torn apart families, sent mothers and fathers to detention centers and deported thousands of people who were simply working to support their families.”
On Nov. 3 – less than a full day after the Dodgers’ victory parade rolled through Downtown en route to a celebration rally at the stadium – there were documented reports of federal immigration agents using a stadium parking lot as a staging area for enforcement activities.
At least one speaker at the Nov. 5 press conference noted reports of investments involving immigration detention centers by Dodgers chairman and controlling owner Mark Walter.
Following their victory in the 2020 World Series, the Dodgers met with President Joe Biden. A year earlier, Mookie Betts – then with the Boston Red Sox – joined several teammates in opting out of meeting with Trump after their 2019 championship.
“As much as we are sports fans and love the Dodgers, we must send a message to the White House that the people stand against Trump’s hate-filled policies and reject his duplicitous attempt to aggrandize himself by congratulating the World Series champion Dodgers team,” Nikkei Progressives added.
Several groups and individuals have made particular mention of the fact that many members of the Dodgers are themselves immigrants, and that the 2025 Major League Baseball season had its first and last games outside the U.S.
“By visiting a president who has used his power to harm the most vulnerable, the team would be turning its back on the very people who fill the stadiums, wear the jerseys, and give this team its heart,” NDLON said.
Outside Dodger Stadium, which welcomed more that 4 millions fans this season, Alvarado drew attention to a fellow NDLON member who was wearing an “ICE Out of L.A.” T-shirt under his open Dodgers jersey.
“If you go to shake the hand of the man who is causing so much suffering for us, that constitutes a full betrayal,” he said.
NDLON’s open letter to the Dodgers and their petition form can be found at: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/dodgers-decline-white-house-invitation.