Trump's Immigration Crackdown Hits Home Depot: At Least 12 Stores Targeted in Summer Sweep

Carlos wasn't looking for trouble on an August morning. He'd been standing outside the Westlake Home Depot since 5:30, same as every day for the past three years. When the Penske truck pulled up, he figured it was just another contractor needing hands for a job. Then the back doors flew open.

What happened next has been playing out across Los Angeles since June. Federal immigration agents have been hitting Home Depot stores hard—Hollywood, Westlake, Van Nuys, Eagle Rock. Each raid follows the same script. Unmarked vehicles. Masked agents. Chaos.

The numbers tell one story. Thirty grabbed in Hollywood. Eight in Westlake. But behind every arrest is a guy like Miguel, who's been sending money home to Oaxaca for his daughter's school fees. Or Roberto, whose wife is pregnant with their third kid.

The Dirty Tricks Nobody Talks About

Here's how it works. A clean-cut guy rolls up in a van around 7 a.m. 'Need five guys for a drywall job in Brentwood', he shouts. '$200 cash for the day'. The workers pile in, grateful for the work. Three blocks later? Welcome to federal custody.

The witnesses saw it happen. These weren't random sweeps. Agents studied the patterns, learned the rhythms. They knew exactly when to strike.

By July, word had spread. Guys in Van Nuys started using lookouts with radios. 'La migra!' would echo across the car park. Sometimes it worked. Usually, it didn't.

The Supreme Court had just given ICE more power in June. Stephen Miller said it was about protecting American jobs. Tell that to the construction sites sitting empty because nobody's left to pour concrete.

An American Citizen Gets the Treatment

Job Garcia made a mistake on 19 June. He pulled out his phone. The 37-year-old grad student was filming agents at the Hollywood Home Depot when they jumped him. Six guys in tactical gear. Knee in the back. Face in the tarmac—the whole nine yards.

'I kept thinking about George Floyd', Garcia said. 'That knee on my back, man. I couldn't breathe right.'

They held him for 25 hours. First at Dodger Stadium (yeah, they're using it as a detention centre now), then downtown. When did they finally check his ID properly? Born in LA. Parents from El Salvador, but he's as American as apple pie. Now he's suing for a million bucks.

A week later, some poor person tried to run from a raid. Made it to the freeway. Truck hit him doing 70. Dead on impact. ICE says they weren't chasing him. Right.

Home Depot Plays Dumb

The Home Depot would say nothing. Their corporate line? We don't know when ICE is coming. We sell hammers.

Council woman Ysabel Jurado went ballistic. Started talking about blocking new stores. The whole City Council got involved. Boycotts. Protests. The works.

Meanwhile, construction's grinding to a halt. The Hispanic Construction Council says we're short half a million workers nationwide. Is the bathroom renovation taking forever? This is why.

What's Next Is Anyone's Guess

June's protests got ugly. They sent in the National Guard. Seven hundred Marines. Fifty-six people were arrested. LA looked like a war zone.

The California Attorney General is promising to fight back. Lawyers are filing papers. Protesters show up every morning with signs.

But here's the thing. Tomorrow at 5:30 a.m., Carlos will be back at that Westlake Home Depot. So will Miguel. And Roberto. Because rent's due on the first, and their kids need to eat.

'You know what's crazy?' Carlos asked me last week, sipping coffee from a paper cup. 'My nephew just graduated from USC. Engineering degree. We came from the same village in Guatemala. Only difference? His parents got papers in '86. Mine didn't.'

That's the real story here. Not the raids or the lawsuits or the political theatre. It's about guys standing in car parks at dawn, hoping for work, wondering if today's the day their luck runs out.