By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Senior National
Correspondent
As thousands of Latinos and immigrant families pack Dodger Stadium night after night, the team’s billionaire owner has faced growing scrutiny over financial connections to companies profiting from the detention and surveillance of immigrants.
Mark Walter, principal owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, also serves as CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a financial firm that manages over $325 billion in assets.
Guggenheim holds a 0.38% stake in the GEO Group, a private prison corporation that operates U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Based on GEO Group’s current valuation of $3.39 billion, Guggenheim’s share amounts to more than $12 million invested in the company’s operations. In addition, Walter leads TWG Global, which recently announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm that ICE paid $30 million to build ImmigrationOS. That platform uses facial recognition, predictive algorithms, and data fusion to track immigrants and support deportation efforts.
These financial ties came to light as ICE raids swept through Los Angeles earlier this year. Despite mounting calls from community groups to speak out, the Dodgers remained silent for nearly two weeks before announcing a $1 million donation to organizations supporting those affected by the raids. During that same period, Walter’s group closed a $10 billion deal to acquire a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers. Critics compared the donation to token damage control. The Dodgers have also faced criticism for historical displacement. Before Dodger Stadium was built, the land belonged to the Mexican-American neighborhoods of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop. In the 1950s, hundreds of families were forcibly removed under the promise of public housing that never materialized.
Today, some advocates say the tools have changed but the impact remains.
“It’s not bulldozers now—it’s surveillance contracts and ICE beds,” said a community organizer who has protested outside the stadium.
Walter’s organizations have also been drawn into legal battles over diversity initiatives. America First Legal, a right-wing group founded by former Trump White House policy director Stephen Miller, filed a federal complaint accusing the Dodgers and Guggenheim of illegal discrimination under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
The complaint states:
“The Los Angeles Dodgers and Guggenheim Partners have represented to the public that they have engaged — and continue to engage — in unlawful employment discrimination under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is unlawful — even when using inclusive terminology — to segregate or classify employees or applicants for employment in ways that would deprive, or tend to deprive individuals of employment, training, or promotions because of their race, color, sex, or national origin.”
The Dodgers declined to comment on the allegations. Guggenheim Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a separate incident, the Dodgers said they turned away ICE officers who tried to enter stadium grounds during the immigration sweeps. ICE initially denied this account, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson later confirmed that Customs and Border Protection vehicles were briefly in the parking lot “unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
Many fans and civil rights advocates see a contradiction between the organization’s community messaging and its financial interests.
“People need to understand that behind the baseball nostalgia and feel-good slogans, there are powerful money streams connected to incarceration and surveillance,” the organizer said.
