Federal immigration enforcement indiscriminately targeted day laborers, street vendors and customers at multiple Home Depots in the San Fernando Valley this week, detaining over two dozen individuals.
The Van Nuys Home Depot was raided twice on Friday, Aug. 8, and the North Hollywood Home Depot on Monday, Aug. 11.
After two weeks of seemingly calmer activity, the raids this week are the latest in a recent uptick across the city – including an operation at a Home Depot in Westlake/MacArthur the week prior, where Border Patrol agents charged out from the back of a Penske rental truck.
Maegan Ortiz, the executive director of the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit organization that operates the Day Laborers Community Job Center in the parking lot of the Van Nuys Home Depot, called the actions “targeted.”
“It’s a clear violation of the [temporary] restraining order,” she added.
As agents indiscriminately detain individuals without a warrant or probable cause, they are violating a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a federal district judge and upheld by the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The TRO prevents the government from stopping individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The judge further ordered that the government is required to provide detained individuals with access to counsel.
“I would love to know directly from Mayor [Karen] Bass … what is she going to do?” said Ortiz.
Although she said other elected officials have reached out, they have received “zero communication” from Bass’ office.
“She can say she cares all she wants, but honestly, behind the scenes, we haven’t seen it,” said Ortiz. “And we’re the biggest day labor organization in the city of Los Angeles.”
North Hollywood Home Depot
At the Home Depot in North Hollywood, witnesses said that at least 10 people were taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Justan Torres – a part of the Adopt a Day Laborer Corner Network in the San Fernando Valley, which keeps watch for immigration raids at several Home Depots – said that he received word of an ICE raid in North Hollywood around 9:45 a.m. When he arrived shortly after at 10 a.m., ICE agents had already left the scene.
After talking to local day laborers, Torres was told that immigration authorities arrived in six trucks and took between 10 to 20 people – day laborers and even customers. According to information he received, the raid occurred in the parking lot and ICE agents did not enter the Home Depot.
While Torres was trying to collect information, around 10:37 a.m., people in the area started to yell that ICE was back in the area – located about a block away at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sherman Way. When Torres and others rushed over, they saw immigration authorities detaining a cyclist. Although a crowd was beginning to form, with many people and drivers yelling at the agents, they left with the cyclist in custody.
Later that day, community members held a “vigil” at the North Hollywood Home Depot to pay respects to those who were abducted, spread awareness and potentially recruit more people into the network.
“We acknowledge that right now our community is under siege by a modern-day Gestapo,” said Torres during the vigil. “So today we called this vigil for this very sad event, and additionally to invite other individuals in our community to stand up for our community. To join the Adopt a Corner Network and various other actions that are happening.”
Pablo Alvarado, the co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), accused Trump of making every Home Depot a trap for immigrants.
“A trap where ICE agents or bounty hunters, whomever they are, are using to abduct people, who make all of these neighborhoods around North Hollywood beautiful,” said Alvarado.
“By the way, it’s the very same people [who are] rebuilding Los Angeles,” he added. “Because it’s impossible to rebuild this city without migrant labor.”
State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, whose district covers the San Fernando Valley, joined the vigil.
“They’re attacking my community because my community is 70% Latino,” said Menjivar, adding that reports revealed Panorama City to be the area hit the most by immigration authorities.
“I’m here to let you know that we are fighting as hard as possible for you,” said Menjivar. “I know you want more. I know it. We’re doing everything we can, but they’re fighting outside of the lines. And I know Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, but we’re fed up.”
She encouraged constituents to vote and to reach out to her office for help finding detained loved ones or getting connected to legal resources.
Van Nuys Home Depot
In an unprecedented action by federal immigration authorities, the Van Nuys Home Depot was targeted twice in one day.
The first raid took place at 7:30 a.m. when about seven vehicles filled with masked men wearing HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) and U.S. Border Patrol tactical gear began grabbing day laborers and street vendors without question and without presenting a warrant, according to witnesses at the scene.
“We think anywhere between 10 to 15 people were taken in the morning in the first raid,” said Ortiz, who rushed to the Day Laborers Community Job Center upon receiving the news.
She added that agents violently arrested people, breaking two car windows and throwing a street vendor to the ground, who they later released because she told them she had legal papers.
By the time of the second raid, which occurred at around 11:45 a.m., volunteers and activists were already on the scene.
According to Ortiz, at least two dozen U.S. Border Patrol agents in full tactical gear, holding weapons and wearing face coverings, arrived in unmarked white vans.
“They came straight for the Day Labor Center,” she said. “I really do feel like we were being targeted.”
Activists and volunteers blocked the doors and stood in a line in front of the center as Border Patrol tried to peer into the windows. One volunteer said it looked as though the agents were even trying to find a hole to throw tear gas into the building.
The Border Patrol agents tackled and detained one laborer at the far end of the parking lot, but quickly left when they realized their operation was otherwise unsuccessful.
“It was clearly a show of force,” said Ortiz.
Witnesses said that the agents appeared to threaten them with tear gas and less-than-lethal ammunition, all the while, approximately six LA Police Department officers watched from the far end of the parking lot.
This particular location has previously been targeted by immigration authorities four times since increased raids began in the Southland.
In one previous instance, one of the center’s staff members, Ernesto Ayala and three volunteers – Jude Allard, Sadot Jarnica and Daniel Montenegro – who were documenting the raid, were arrested by federal authorities and held for 50 hours in a detention facility downtown, before being released without formal charges filed. According to Ortiz, they were also denied access to an attorney while they were detained.
Ortiz and the other workers at the center are now connecting with the family members of the laborers who were detained to help try and locate their loved ones and refer them to legal resources. They are also supporting families with everyday necessities by providing grocery cards or delivering medicine.
“A lot of times, this is the breadwinner of the family who was taken,” said Ortiz. “Like the young man who was here today.”
Before Ortiz spoke with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol, she was assisting a young man whose father was detained by Border Patrol agents during a raid earlier in the day.
“[It’s] really young adults that now have to bear the weight of supporting a family while their parent is gone,” she said.
Gabriel Arizon contributed to this article.