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Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark told members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) on Tuesday ahead of the All-Star Game that he and his office are keeping immigration top of mind with the league’s large foreign presence.
Roughly 28.6% of MLB players on Opening Day rosters (over 220 of the 265 foreign-born players) were of Latino descent.
Amid Donald Trump’s presidency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have cracked down on illegal immigration. Because of this, Clark said his office has told players to “carry their documentation wherever they go… to ensure guys are in the best possible position to get to the ballpark and keep their job.”
“We’re… trying to put them and equip them in the best position possible to navigate the atmosphere that we’re in in regards to immigration,” Clark said, according to a video taken by Our Esquina. “We communicate with our players, we told them to carry their documentation wherever they go, we ensure the lines of communications are open, such that if they are having an issue or a family member is having an issue, how best can we help support them?
“We’ve got immigration council and immigration lawyers on staff to provide support in a way that we have in the past, but not to the extent that we do now, in order to assure guys are in the best possible position to get to the ballpark and keep their job.
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“It is complicated, it is challenging on multiple levels, but we continue to communicate with our guys and assure them whether they’re at the minor league level or at the major league level, this is how best to protect yourself in the nearest term in carrying the documentation while having an open line of communication is what we’ve found has worked so far.”
Law enforcement was spotted outside of Dodger Stadium last month. They were initially believed to be, and claimed by the Dodgers to be, ICE, which prompted protesters at the site. But in a statement of their own after ICE’s denial, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said, “CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly,” and it “had nothing to do with the Dodgers.”
The Dodgers said the agents had “requested permission to access the parking lots” and were denied. But an ICE spokesperson said in an email to Fox News Digital, “ICE was never at Dodgers stadium, and thus never tried to gain access.”
The vehicles on stadium grounds were “unrelated to any operation or enforcement,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement.
Days after the incident, the Dodgers pledged $1 million to aid families impacted by the immigration arrests.
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