Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. Hope you’ll join us here every Saturday. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
While most of us who write and read here at Daily Kos are intensely focused on politics, according to polling data sports are still number one in terms of interest to the public. Interest in politics ranks lower, but sports and politics are intertwined and even more so in the age of President Donald Trump.
BBC sports editor Dan Roan raised the question of Trump’s impact on sports back in 2024 pointing out:
Trump has promised the mass deportation of undocumented migrants, and to complete the building of a wall along the country’s southern border that was started during his first presidency.
Such policies are set to heighten diplomatic tensions with Mexico, a fellow co-host of the 2026 World Cup (alongside Canada) and could lead to concerns among fans about travelling between the two countries.
But Mexico isn’t the only concern. Cuba has been added to countries with visa restrictions for entering the U.S. which complicated things for the Cuban women’s volleyball team this month:
The Cuban women’s national volleyball team was denied a chance to play in a tournament in Puerto Rico following the new visa restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Cuban Volleyball Federation said last week that the team, comprising 12 athletes, a referee and several coaches, had their visa request denied and will be unable to attend the tournament later this month.
[…]
Cuba was scheduled to play in the NORCECA Women’s Final Four tournament in Manatí, Puerto Rico. The tournament includes Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica and it awards ranking points toward qualification for the Volleyball Nations League.
«We were focused on the competition because it’s right there,» said Dayana Martínez, another player. «Arriving at the embassy and being denied the visa affects us a lot because that competition gives us points to improve our ranking,»
The story got me thinking about sports, international competitions, Caribbean competitors in the age of Trump, and ICE, and my thoughts turned to baseball. Though baseball is the United States’ second-favorite national sport these days after football, it is still the pastime that has the largest number of players from the Caribbean and Latin America.
There was a lot of attention in the mainstream media, like this NBC report, after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ response to ICE when agents showed up seeking access to the parking lot on June 19:
Sports business writer Adam Minter, however, wrote a critique for Bloomberg about the response, or lack thereof, of Major League Baseball leadership. After all, not only are many baseball players from other countries, but Latinos are big fans of the sport. And up until the incident at Dodger Stadium, MLB had remained silent on the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps:
But the morning agents came, the Dodgers finally acted. The team denied them access to the parking lot and a day later announced a $1 million pledge to help immigrant families harmed by the ongoing raids. That’s a modest show of support for an organization worth an estimated $7.7 billion, and it hasn’t satisfied everyone. But satisfactory or not, it’s a clear indication of whose side the Dodgers are taking.
[…]
In 2025, nearly 28% of MLB players are foreign-born, and it’s simply impossible to imagine baseball without stars such as Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto. Those international stars, in turn, are leading a surge of interest in the game and the business of baseball. MLB is on track for its third straight year of attendance growth, and viewership in the US and Japan is surging in 2025. Of course, other factors are in play too, but does anyone seriously think a less international game would be as well-played, entertaining, and lucrative?
Trump’s immigration policies put that success at risk. For example, under the terms of his recently enacted travel ban, the issuance of new visas to Cuban and Venezuelan nationals is severely restricted.
Dozens of players from both countries — Hall of Famers like Tony Pérez and current players like Jose Altuve — have made prominent contributions to MLB for decades. The new policies will make it far more difficult for teams to bring new signees from either country to the US. But even if loopholes are found, the message to players and their families in these baseball hotbeds is hardly welcoming.
So far, MLB has chosen to remain silent on these changes, just as it has clammed up over the deportations that are running through its Latino fanbase. Perhaps the league and its teams believe that quiet diplomacy is the best way to approach the Trump administration on immigration-related matters. But if so, there’s little public indication that doing so has achieved anything other than damaging relations between the Dodgers and their fans.
Craig Calcaterra who writes a daily baseball newsletter, posted this to Bluesky:
Baseball sports writer Michael Clair’s post to MLB.com with some numbers on internationally born players last season:
The point is simple: Baseball is a global sport, and that’s reflected on every roster and at every ballpark. This year, a total of 264 players — nearly 28 percent of the league — representing 19 different countries and territories outside the United States were featured on 2024 Opening Day rosters, injured and inactive lists. That number is the fourth-most all-time on Opening Day rosters, trailing behind 2020 (291 players) which was played with expanded 30-man rosters; 2022 (275), which featured 28-man rosters; and is just a slight dip from last year when 270 international ballplayers made it onto Opening Day rosters.
The league has been tracking this information since 1995, with the Dominican Republic leading every year. That’s no different this year, with 108 players from the D.R. on big league rosters — just below the 110 that featured in 2020.
Here are the full country of origin numbers Clair listed from 2024:
- Dominican Republic – 108
- Venezuela – 58
- Cuba – 18
- Puerto Rico – 17
- Canada – 13
- Mexico – 12
- Japan – 10
- Colombia – 5
- Panama – 5
- Curaçao – 4
- South Korea – 3
- Australia – 2
- Aruba – 1
- the Bahamas – 1
- Brazil – 1
- Germany – 1
- Honduras – 1
- Nicaragua – 1
- South Africa – 1
For 2025 statistics, Ariel Velázquez reported for AS USA:
The history of Major League Baseball cannot be told without discussing migration. Ever since the first overseas players joined the National League from Cuba in the 19th century, the diamond has been a meeting point for global talent.
And if there is one nation that has not only been a part of North America’s elite baseball league, but has shaped the very essence of the game, it is the Dominican Republic.
[…]
This year, once again, the small Caribbean country has emerged as the great non-U.S. factory of MLB talent, with a total of 100 players across the league’s 30 teams. This is not new, but it is a testament to the visceral relationship between the island and baseball.
In the Dominican Republic, baseball is not just a sport: it is a way of life. For many Dominicans, it represents a route out of poverty, offering a journey to fame and fortune that begins on dirt fields and ends under the spotlights of iconic stadiums like Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park.
Neither story discusses another point which I noticed immediately when I took a look at photos of the players. Almost all of them are Afro-Latino. Given Trump’s open racism and animus toward both Black folks and Latinos and the current depredations of ICE agents, Afro-Latinos in baseball are open targets.
MLB is already expressing some concern about the Trump travel bans, reported ABC3340:
Major League Baseball is paying close attention to the expected travel ban by the Trump Administration. With a percentage of players from Cuba and Venezuela, playing games outside of the United States could present some challenges.
According to the MLB, there were 18 players from Cuba and 58 from Venezuela on Opening Day rosters in 2024. But even those with P-1 visas, which are granted to internationally recognized athletes and entertainers, still might have issues entering and leaving the U.S.
Ernesto Castaneda, Director of the Immigration Lab at American University tells us, that when games are played outside of the United States, players from Cuba and Venezuela might get left behind.
«The lawyers will probably recommend those players do not go to those games,» Castaneda said.
Without a special exemption, those players would likely have a hard time returning to the U.S. after playing games in Toronto against the Blue Jays or in winter baseball leagues in other countries.
«If their passport is from Cuba or Venezuela and that went into effect they wouldn’t be allowed in while the rest of the team would,» said Castaneda.
Clearly, baseball will not be the only sport affected, and there are now more news stories covering this issue. Malcolm Ferguson at The New Republic wrote in June about Trump’s travel ban and how it could jeopardize future events like the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics:
The Trump administration is thinking about adding 26 more countries—most of them African—to his travel ban list.
The Washington Post obtained a Trump administration memo that would give the 26 countries listed 60 days to capitulate to State Department demands. Some countries were flagged for having “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or “government fraud.” There was also a requirement against “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States” by people from the listed countries. Nearly all of the listed countries are in Africa, the Caribbean, or the Middle East.
The added countries are: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Trump already banned travelers from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen earlier in June.
My husband, who follows baseball, asked “What does this mean for the Little League World Series in August?”
The Little League Baseball World Series 2025 takes place in Williamsport, PA, from August 13–24. The Caribbean region teams and teams from the Latin American region are currently competing for a spot in the series. Normally the teams that get a chance to play in the series come to Williamsport with coaches, and often family members come as well, but they don’t stay in the official International housing section.
I could find no information about what is being done to protect any participants from ICE or about travel restrictions. I only found this paragraph at the end of a story on Trump’s travel ban and the Olympics in the Sports Business Journal:
THE ATHLETIC’s Rebecca Tauber noted the Concacaf Gold Cup begins next week, the Little League World Series kicks off in August and the N.Y. Marathon in November. Then, of course, come the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics, with “dozens of international sporting events big and small in between.” This week’s order “adds uncertainty to massive competitions planned years in advance, to the athletes and their families planning on traveling and to local economies hosting them.”
Tauber: “Questions remain, however, around what constitutes a ‘major sporting event,’ and who is included in ‘immediate relatives.’” Additionally, to “what extent families will be able to travel with affected athletes remains an open question.” As for fans, “concerns remain about how Trump’s travel restrictions might affect tourism for major sporting events, not just from banned countries but from other fans reconsidering travel to the U.S.”
ICE has clearly not overlooked kids playing baseball. The I Love the Upper West Side Newsletter in New York City posted:
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal wrote in her email:
I recently learned that ICE agents approached a group of kids attending baseball practice near the batting cages near West 71st Street in Riverside Park. The agents questioned whether the kids were American and asked them to produce citizenship papers. Their coach, despite being threatened with arrest, bravely
and successfully stopped ICE from further interrogating or detaining the kids after demanding that the officers produce a warrant. They of course did not have one.
We now live in a country headed by a man whose favorite pastime is spreading hate, racism, and fear. If you are a sports fan speak out and support groups who are doing so, like these soccer fans from the Los Angeles Football Club:
Do you follow a sport likely to be affected by ICE deportations?
Please join me in the comments section below to respond and for more, and the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
