Dodgers block ICE agents from entering stadium in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers announced on Thursday they blocked federal immigration agents from entering its stadium as dozens of anti-ICE protesters gathered outside of the sports venue.

On social media, the Major League Baseball team said that federal agents working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at the stadium and “requested permission to access the parking lots.”

“They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the Dodgers said, adding that their game against the Padres will go on on the stadium as scheduled.

Demonstrators standing outside the stadium’s gates were seen holding signs and chanting “ICE out of L.A.” and “ICE go home” as several dark SUV vehicles stood on the opposite side of the road. Some of the federal agents appeared to be wearing Homeland Security uniforms.

The federal agents who showed up in those vehicles were turned away from entering the stadium gates, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

It was not immediately clear whether or how their presence was connected to immigration operations that were reported around the city on Thursday.

Eunisses Hernandez, a Los Angeles city council member, told NBC Los Angeles she has been in communication with the mayor’s office and was told that the Dodgers asked the agents to leave.

According to Hernandez, the federal agents were first seen outside of the stadium early in the morning.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s going on,” she said.

“They haven’t left yet,” Hernandez said early Thursday afternoon.

Los Angeles police were called in, Hernandez said. They arrived in tactical gear at around 2:25 p.m. ET and started moving protesters out of the way.

Sources told NBC News that the Dodgers have cooperated with law-enforcement in the past, allowing parking lot around the stadium to be used for staging.

Jacob Soboroff and Andrew Blankstein reported from Los Angeles and Nicole Acevedo from New York.