Dodgers fulfill $1-million pledge in response to ICE raids, owners divest from prison group

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The Dodgers’ decision to deny U.S.Customs and Border Protection agents access to Dodger Stadium wasn’t the way the team intended to first address the surge of federal immigration enforcement a year ago.Pressed by religious, labor and community leaders to take a stand, the Dodgers had prepared a response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol raids that triggered widespread protests — only to shelve the announcement as the team went public with their refusal to let federal agents onto stadium grounds.

A day later, on June 20, the Dodgers unveiled their plan, centered on $1 million “toward direct financial assistance for families of immigrants impacted by recent events in the region.”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.”Gustavo Arellano writes that ‘the Dodgers need to summon the moral courage of their past and once again set an example others can follow.’PICO California, the state’s largest faith-based organizing network, was behind a petition delivered to the Dodgers, the contents of which were largely addressed by the team’s $1-million commitment.But as the last of the money flowed to immigrant families in need in late August, another petition circulated that demanded Dodgers owner Mark Walter sell his “company’s stake in ICE jails and deportation flights.”Walter’s massive investment firm, Guggenheim Partners, owned more than a milli...