A pair of blue and yellow earplugs dangle on Jose’s neck while he waits for work as a day laborer outside the Home Depot in Cypress Park.
They’ve been a necessity for laborers in the area since late November, when Home Depot installed three machines in the parking lot that emit a high-pitched tone. The noise, typically kept on all day, is a piercing sound that “penetrates your bones,” he said.
The Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California, or IDEPSCA, a nonprofit that supports day laborers, held a news conference at Home Depot on Wednesday, calling for the company to remove the machines and vocalize opposition to the ICE raids taking place in its parking lots, part of a growing number of protests targeting corporate cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Home Depot locations nationwide have been a prime target for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids under President Trump’s immigration crackdown. In early November, ICE agents detained a man at the Cypress Park location and then drove off with his toddler in the back of the vehicle.
About 50 people have been detained at the Cypress Park location this year, said Maegan Ortiz, IDEPSCA’s executive director. The machines are an attempt to push day laborers off its lots, she said.
The machines were turned off by the company during the news conference but were turned back on about an hour after it ended, according to workers. The noise is in earshot of IDEPSCA’s day laborer center, one of five operated by the organization that have supported workers for more than two decades.
“We have been here and remain open through global pandemics, providing services and creating community,” Ortiz said. “We’re not going to let sound machines, gates and intimidation get rid of us. Day laborers are here to stay. IDEPSCA is here to stay. The immigrant community is here to stay.”
Evelyn Fornes, a spokesperson for Home Depot, wrote to The Times that the company “has several initiatives we use to keep our stores safe, including human and technology resources.” The company did not address questions about why or when the machines were installed.
George Lane, a company spokesperson, previously told The Times that the company doesn’t coordinate with ICE or Border Patrol.
“We’re not involved in the operations. We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and often, we don’t know operations have taken place until they’re over,” Lane wrote.
Jose’s earplugs, which IDEPSCA provided to workers, help muffle the sound, but aren’t enough to completely mask it, he said. The noise causes workers headaches, nausea and dizziness, said Jose and Andres Salazar, the center’s site coordinator.
Salazar said the noise often follows him home, still ringing in his ears long after he’s left the parking lot.
The machines were installed only days after the latest raid at the location in late November, during which day laborers were taken and IDEPSCA staff members were harmed, Ortiz said.
The machines were installed on light posts in the parking lot situated directly under the 5 Freeway overpass. Hernandez and Ortiz said that portion of the parking lot is California Department of Transportation property and not owned by Home Depot. They urged the city to look into the machine installations.
Home Depot also installed yellow barriers that close off access to the parking lot near IDEPSCA’s day labor center, located at the corner of the Cypress Park location.
The machines are “a deliberate choice by a multibillion-dollar corporation that absolutely knew what it was doing and chose to weaponize sound literally,” said Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents L.A. Council District 1. “Devices like these are used as torture against our people.”
Home Depot relies on immigrant and Latino communities, Hernandez said, including customers who shop inside, and day laborers, who seek work outside their storefronts.
The day laborer center is more than just a workplace, said Jose, who asked to withhold his last name for fear of retaliation by immigration agents. For many day laborers, it’s a second home, and for some, their only one. The center is bursting with greenery — plants that are cared for by the workers themselves.
“This space is something truly beautiful,” Jose said. “But, everything they’re doing with the noise and the barriers, it is affecting us. … We’re here to help serve the community, not steal from the company.”
The noise is an added another layer of stress to day laborers, who are already struggling with less work opportunities and navigating lingering trauma from ICE raids. Jose was at the Home Depot when the last raid took place, only days before the company implemented the noise machines.
He watched in horror as co-workers were taken and volunteers were beaten.
“It made me angry, but I felt so impotent because, well, what do I do?” Jose said. “If I start fighting them, they’re going to knock me down, they’re going to take me.”
