LA Organizations Call for Boycott of Home Depot Due to Silence on Immigration Raids

After numerous raids by federal immigration agents at Home Depots throughout Los Angeles, organizations are calling for boycotts of the company over its silence on the issue and demand that it take a stand against the raids.

Announced at a press conference outside a Home Depot on West Slauson and Western avenues in LA, organizations including the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and Union del Barrio endorsed the call for an organized boycott. 

John Parker, a coordinator for the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice said while different parts of the community may be focused on separate issues, whether they be the immigration raids or the conflict in Gaza, they all have the same enemy. 

“Because the target is right at us and right by our children and our neighbor’s children,” Parker said. “And we can say no more. No more. No fascism. You bring it to us, we’re going to bring it back to you by any means necessary.”

A letter endorsed by multiple organizations said Home Depot businesses have been “used as a stage for the repeated targeting of workers.”

“Home Depot’s silence on this issue speaks volumes about their support for [President Donald] Trump’s anti-democratic and anti-worker policies and shows a lack of empathy for the risks that workers and indigenous communities are facing right now in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California,” the letter said.

The organizations will continue calling for an organized boycott of Home Depot until the company complies with its four demands: it voice public opposition to the immigration raids; it deny all federal immigration agencies access to any property owned by the stores, including parking lots; allow day laborer centers at each of its locations; and compensate families that have been impacted by raids that have taken place on their premises.

They demand that Home Depot provide $100,000 for every person “who was racially profiled and detained by federal immigration agencies” on their premises and $250,000 to the families of each individual detained that resulted in deportation. 

Immigration raids have continued at Home Depot locations, including one at Van Nuys on Tuesday, July 8. It’s unclear how many people were detained in front of the store, but four people, including local activist Ernesto Ayala, were arrested for allegedly trying to disable United States Border Patrol vehicles with improvised devices that appeared to be rubber or metal strips with large nails attached. 

In response to a request for comment, Home Depot provided the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol with the following statement:

“We aren’t notified that ICE activities are going to happen, we’re not involved in them, and in many cases, we don’t know that arrests have taken place until after they’re over. We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate.”