Prince Harry has revealed his LA Dodgers ‘date night’ with Meghan Markle was thanks to an invite from a billionaire with financial ties to Donald Trump’s ICE immigration detention centres and flights.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were the VIP guests of the baseball team’s co-owner Mark Walter.
Mr Walter, the chairman of the new World Series champions, is facing ongoing protests due to links to ICE and ongoing immigration raids and deportations across Los Angeles.
The Dodgers’ chairman and controlling owner, who was pictured in the Oval Office with President Trump in April, runs a major investment company that has put cash into a private prison company that helps detain and deport illegal immigrants in the US.
Mr Walter is under pressure from Dodgers fans to reject an invitation to celebrate their World Series win at the White House – and divest from any ICE-related investments.
Harry revealed his invite during a grovelling apology to Canadians last night because he wore a Dodgers cap hat instead of a Toronto Blue Jays one. The Duke joked that he did so under ‘duress’ and to be ‘polite’ to their host.
Mr Walter, who also has a stake in London football club Chelsea, gave Harry and Meghan the VIP treatment during game four of the World Series on October 28, including a tour of the ballpark, dugout and trophy room.
The Sussexes were pictured enjoying the game in the stands, having hotdogs and drinks while sporting brand new Dodgers’ hats. They shared pictures and video on Instagram with the caption ‘date night’.
Harry has revealed they were guests of the team’s owner, who is facing protests related to investments into ICE-related businesses
US President Donald Trump holds up a Dodgers jersey alongside team owner Mark Walter in the Oval Office in April
Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s financial services firm is invested in a private prison company and has sparked protests from fans
It is not known if Harry and his wife Meghan, a Dodgers fan who celebrated their World Series win wildly on Instagram, are aware of the ICE controversy.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined to comment.
Harry was in Toronto last night to support Canadian veterans but used a speech to apologise for not wearing a Blue Jays cap.
This has inadvertently dragged the couple, well known for their liberal views, into the immigration storm that has sparked protests at Dodger Stadium.
Harry claimed it was out of his control, and revealed for the first time that he had been there with the Dodgers’ primary owner Mark Walter.
‘I was under duress’, he said. ‘There wasn’t much choice. I was invited to the LA Dodgers’ box, or dugout, by the owner himself. So, I was doing what I thought was the polite thing to do’.
Mr Walter is CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a New York investment giant with cash invested in ICE jail operator GEO Group.
GEO’s subsidiary GTI also provides transportation for deportation flights on behalf of ICE.
A new petition signed by over 3,000 Californians directly urges Walter to end Guggenheim Partners’ relationship with the GEO Group.
Many in the Dodgers’ large latino fanbase have also said they have felt like abandoning the team – who won their ninth World Series this week – because of the scandal.
They have also called the continued silence from the team’s management over Donald Trump’s ICE Raids a betrayal’.
Meghan Markle also filmed Prince Harry joyfully saying, ‘let’s go,’ while he looked at the camera at a World Series game
In her story, the Duchess of Sussex poses with Prince Harry at field side, followed by Prince Harry filming her looking at the different trophies, eating a hot dog, and at field side
There have been protests through 2025 over the financial link between the owner and ICE, as well as demands for the team to speak out against ICE raids.
In June, there was also a row when the Dodgers said they had denied ICE entry to the grounds of their stadium – but ICE said that this was ‘false’ since they were ‘never there.’
To their supporters, Harry and Meghan Markle’s liberal credentials are impeccable.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex offered tacit support for Joe Biden in 2020 and even gave $500,000 to Democrat-linked gurus, funds and charities including one run by the former President’s daughter Ashley.
Meghan has previously said Donald Trump is ‘misogynistic’ and ‘divisive’ while Harry claimed Trump had ‘blood on his hands’ over his environmental policies during a prank call.
So when Harry revealed last night that he and his wife were invited to watch the LA Dodgers by its controversial owner this week, it has raised eyebrows.
Speaking to CTV News in Toronto about the baseball, Harry said: ‘Oh the LA Dodgers hat, hatgate. Firstly I would like to apologise to Canada for wearing it’.
He then pulled out a Blue Jays cap and placed it on his head, saying he would wear that hat from now on to ‘make sure I don’t make any more of those mistakes’.
The Prince then joked that there was another reason he was wearing the LA Dodgers cap to the game.
‘But the other piece to this was… when you’re missing a lot of hair on top and you’re sitting under floodlights, you’ll take any hat that’s available’.
He explained that through Game Five, Game Six, and Game Seven, he was Blue Jays throughout.
‘Now that I’ve admitted that, it’s going to be really hard for me to return to Los Angeles,’ he said.
When asked by CTV News if there was anything he would like to say about the scandalous move, Harry said: ‘Oh the LA Dodgers hat, hatgate. Firstly I would like to apologise to Canada for wearing it’
There is a groundswell of opinion from some that the World Series-champion Dodgers should decline President Donald Trump’s White House invitation following last week’s epic Game 7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
‘By visiting a president who has used his power to harm the most vulnerable, the team would be turning its back on the very people who fill the stadiums, wear the jerseys, and give this team its heart,’ read an open letter from the National Day Laborer Organising Network.
The group claims to have sent out 5,600 letters on the subject with plans to post another 800 more.
Furthermore, All Saints Church in Pasadena held a public demonstration Wednesday calling for the Dodgers to skip the customary White House visit – a trip the team made earlier this year to commemorate its 2024 World Series title.
The outdoor news conference included a poster inspired by artist Sergio D. Robleto’s painting of an ICE officer arresting late Mexican icon and legendary Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.
As Robleto wrote online, the piece ‘is a reflection of the struggle of the community coming to terms with the realities of ICE raids and their disappointment with how the Dodgers have responded.’
Protestors specifically called out Dodgers chairman and controlling owner Mark Walter, whose financial services firm, Guggenheim Partners, is invested in the private prison company Geo Group.
Geo Group is one of several private companies operating ICE detention centres.
An outdoor news conference included a poster inspired by artist Sergio D. Robleto’s painting of an ICE officer arresting late Mexican icon and Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela
The Dodgers have been criticised by fans this season amid the uproar over ICE raids
A parallel MoveOn.com petition has called for Walter and Guggenheim to divest from Geo Group.
The Daily Mail has reached out to both the Dodgers and the White House for comment on the petition.
ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as other federal law enforcement agencies have performed hundreds of raids throughout Los Angeles county since May.
But critics have accused officers of human rights abuses and even arresting US citizens.
More than 170 US citizens have been held by ICE agents, according to a recent report by ProPublica, and that includes LA-area man, George Retes, an American combat veteran arrested while working security on a legal marijuana farm. Retes told ProPublica officers knew he was American, but ‘they didn’t care.’
In June, the Dodgers said they blocked ICE agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in a defiant stand against Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Dodgers previously visited the Trump White House back in April to toast their 2024 title
However, Department of Homeland Security claimed the agents were not ICE, but Customs and Border Protection officers who were on the scene for ‘unrelated’ reasons that were never specified.
By that time the Dodgers were already facing criticism in Los Angeles for their June visit to the White House to celebrate their 2024 World Series title. The Dodgers also visited the Joe Biden White House in 2021 to celebrate the team’s 2020 championship.
A city founded under Spanish rule and later part of Mexico, Los Angeles has been part of the United States since 1848 but remains largely inhabited by people of Mexican descent.
‘Los Angeles is a city built by immigrants, working families, and dreamers,’ read a post from the Day Laborer Network asking supporters to sign a petition. ‘We celebrate our champions, but we also stand for justice, dignity, and love for our community. ‘Dodgers, stay with us. Stand with the city that has always stood with you.’
Harry and Meghan have been accused of dabbling in US politics with rows over their political neutrality have rumbled on for years.
Back in September 2020, soon after Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had moved to the US, the couple urged American voters to ‘reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity’ in that year’s election which was eventually won by Joe Biden .
While the Sussexes did not endorse a candidate, the wording of their video message prompted accusations that they were referring to Mr Trump and had therefore breached UK protocol keeping members of the Royal Family political neutrality.
Last year the Sussexes had again urged people to vote in the US Presidential Election. They did not endorse a candidate but their intervention was taken as a nod to Kamala by critics.
Some suggested that the decision not to come out expressly for Kamala may have been related to the row over Harry’s visa application.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also donated more than half a million dollars to Democrat-linked gurus, funds and charities despite royals having to be politically neutral.
Their Archewell foundation handed £502,300 ($632,000) to individuals and groups that would likely frustrate Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the couple and recently called Meghan ‘terrible’.
The largest single payment went to a charity run by Joe Biden‘s daughter Ashley, Archewell’s tax documents in the US show.
And multiple six-figure sums were handed to one of the Democratic party‘s go-to PRs who claims to be an expert in online ‘integrity’ and countering ‘disinformation’.
Donald Trump said earlier this year that he would not be deporting Prince Harry despite major questions about his visa and his historical drug use.
‘I don’t want to do that. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible,’ the President said.
The Duke of Sussex then used his speech to 40,000 people at the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in Canada to bemoan ‘weak moral character in the world’ – before thanking veterans – in comments widely viewed as a dig at the US President.
Meghan has previously said Mr Trump is Meghan ‘misogynistic’ and ‘divisive’ and Harry said Trump had ‘blood on his hands’ over his environmental policies during a prank call.