Angelenos mobilize outside Home Depots in solidarity with day laborers amid immigration raids

A few days after an immigration raid at the Home Depot in Westlake and garment industry factories in Los Angeles on June 6, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON) put out a call for people to adopt a day laborer corner. The idea was simple: choose a location convenient to you where day laborers gather, and commit to showing up regularly. 

The following week, more than 500 people across the country attended an NDLON webinar to learn more. A follow-up webinar last week had approximately 800 attendees. Now, increasing numbers of volunteers are showing up at Home Depots across Los Angeles to be present alongside day laborers.

“This moment demands more than watching, it demands that we show up for one another,” Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of NDLON, said on the webinar. “You’re not just defending day laborers, you’re defending your community and your country.” 

There are more than 40 Home Depots in Los Angeles County, and immigration raids have taken place outside at least 10 of them in recent weeks. Day laborers congregate outside Home Depots and other hardware stores, where homeowners and contractors hire them for home repair and construction jobs. 

Results from a National Day Labor Survey published in 2006 estimated a population of approximately 40,000 day laborers in California, with about 75% being undocumented. Nik Theodore, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said forthcoming data indicates the number of day laborers has declined, despite construction industry employers reporting labor shortages of more than 400,000 workers nationwide. 

After attending the webinar, Terrie Samundra connected with other attendees who live near her local Home Depot in Cypress Park. “An email went out that night … and we just self-organized, and then came down here. I mean, really, it's just showing up,” she said. 

Another attendee started bringing Know Your Rights cards to the day laborers in the parking lot. As more people started showing up, they created a Signal group to coordinate efforts and share information for the area. Volunteers station themselves at various entry and exit points of the Home Depot, and keep an eye out for vehicles that transport federal agents. 

The volunteers joined a parallel effort by the local Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU), which has set up community hubs with tents outside some Home Depots, including the Cypress Park and Westlake locations. An article by LA Public Press detailed how LATU members at Westlake had hoped the model would spread to other locations. 

One volunteer said she went to the Home Depot in Alhambra to share what she had learned with people setting one up there. Currently, there are groups at Home Depots in Westlake, Cypress Park, Alhambra, Hollywood, Pacoima, Marina del Rey and likely more. 

“Workers and vendors have said, ‘Thank you for being here—just your visibility is making us feel supported and safer,’” Samundra said. Volunteers believe their community presence helps to deter immigration raids or minimize the number of people caught up in a raid. 

In the event of a raid, volunteers can help contact family members and ensure that whatever belongings the person had—such as a vehicle, tools or food cart—are taken care of. 

Emily, a staff member at NDLON, said: “It's solidarity, it's being a neighbor, it's showing up for your neighbor when your neighbor needs help.”

Samundra said that in the face of the anger, sadness and heartbreak about what’s going on, being able to volunteer her time has helped.

“I think this kind of work is so important because I think about my life. I have this one slice of time in the human story, what am I going to do with it?” she said. “Get out and connect, and be on the ground in your community working collectively hand in hand.” 

Emily from NDLON said, “I think that we're seeing a lot of people who have good hearts and want to do something but don't necessarily know where to tap in. This is an invitation to all of those people to show up because collective care is everybody's job.”

“Don't wait around for somebody else to do it,” said Samundra. “It's on you if you want to do it. Just start it and people will show up.”