Dodgers to announce plans to assist immigrant communities

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The Dodgers will announce Thurs­day their plans to assist Los Ange­les’ immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties.

A team spokesman told City News Ser­vice a news release would be issued Thurs­day but wrote that he could­n’t pro­vide any details.

Many fans have con­demned the Dodgers orga­ni­za­tion and called on the team to release a state­ment regard­ing the immi­gra­tion arrests and raids unfold­ing in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia.

The Dodger orga­ni­za­tion has drawn crit­i­cism on social media for not com­ment­ing on the mat­ter.

A group of com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers called on the Dodgers and oth­er promi­nent Los Ange­les sports teams to back their efforts to sup­port com­mu­ni­ties impact­ed by recent ICE raids across the region.

“The largest eco­nom­ic engine in this area is silent! Wake up! Do bet­ter! We know you can!” Raul Claros of Cal­i­for­nia Ris­ing said at a news con­fer­ence, point­ing to Dodger Sta­di­um behind him.

“The same orga­ni­za­tion of Jack­ie Robin­son, the same orga­ni­za­tion of Fernandomania.The same orga­ni­za­tion that took away this land,” Claros said in an appar­ent ref­er­ence to the evic­tion of Chavez Ravine res­i­dents, most of whom were His­pan­ic, before Dodger Sta­di­um was built in the 1950s. “And that’s why we’re here.”

This comes after singer Nez­za per­formed the nation­al anthem in Span­ish at Dodger Sta­di­um over the week­end. The Colom­bian-Domini­can per­former made the deci­sion to do so even though the team asked her not to.

She spoke to Eye­wit­ness News after a video of her per­for­mance went viral.

Her per­for­mance came as many look to the pub­lic fig­ures and sports teams they sup­port to say some­thing about the tac­tics and impact of increased immi­gra­tion arrests in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, includ­ing the Dodgers.

“I think that they should like at least acknowl­edge some of what’s hap­pen­ing, because it affects every­body, not just the His­pan­ic com­mu­ni­ty, but all of their fans,” said L.A. res­i­dent Daisy Perez.

Dodgers infield­er Kike Her­nan­dez wrote on Insta­gram Sat­ur­day: “I am sad­dened and infu­ri­at­ed by what’s hap­pen­ing in our coun­try and our city. 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.”