‘It gets into your bones’: Day laborers protest against Home Depot’s installed sound equipment

A pair of blue and yellow earplugs hang around Jose’s neck as he waits for work as a day laborer at the Home Depot in Cypress Park.

It’s been a necessity for workers in the area since late November, when Home Depot installed three machines in the parking lot that emit high-pitched tones. The noise, which often lasts all day, is a piercing sound that “gets into your bones,” he said.

The Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a non-profit organization that supports day laborers, held a press conference at Home Depot on Wednesday, asking the company to remove the equipment and voice its opposition to the ICE raids that took place in its parking lots, which is part of a growing number of protests targeting the company’s cooperation with immigration enforcement.

There are four Home Depot locations nationwide be the main target with ICE raids under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In early November, ICE agents lock up the man in the Cypress Park area and then walked with her child in the back of the car.

About 50 people have been arrested in the Cypress Park area this year, said Maegan Ortiz, IDEPSCA executive director. The machines are an attempt to remove day laborers from their positions, he said.

The equipment was shut down by the company during the press conference, but it was turned off an hour later, according to the employees. The noise is in the ears of the IDEPSCA day workers’ center, which is one of five run by this organization that has supported workers for more than twenty years.

“We’ve been here and we’ve been open for global pandemics, providing services and creating community,” Ortiz said. “We will not let the noise machines, gates and intimidation destroy us. Day laborers will stay. DEPESCA will stay. The immigrant community will stay here.”

Home Depot did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. George Lane, a company spokesman, previously told The Times that the company has no contact with ICE or the Border Patrol.

“We are not involved in the jobs. We are not informed of what will happen with immigration enforcement, and most of the time, we do not know that the jobs are done until they are done,” Lane wrote.

Jose’s earplugs, which IDEPSCA provided to the workers, help block the noise, but not enough to block it out completely, he said. This noise causes headaches, nausea and dizziness for the workers, said Jose and Andres Salazar, the center’s area coordinator.

Salazar said the noise often follows him home, still ringing in his ears long after he left the parking lot.

The devices were installed a few days after the latest attack on the site in late November, in which workers were taken and IDEPSCA workers were injured, Ortiz said.

The machines were installed on light poles in the parking lot under the 5 freeway. Hernandez and Ortiz said part of the parking lot is Caltrans property and not Home Depot. They urged the city to look into the installation of the machine.

Home Depot also installed yellow barriers blocking access to the parking lot near the IDEPSCA day labor center, which is on the corner of the Cypress Park lot.

These devices were “deliberately chosen by a multibillion-dollar company that knew exactly what it was doing and chose to use sound weapons,” said Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the city’s first district. “Devices like these are being used as torture against our people.”

Home Depot relies on the immigrant and Latino communities, Hernandez said, including customers who shop inside and day laborers, who are looking for work outside of their stores.

The day labor center is more than just a place to work, said Jose, who asked to withhold his last name for fear of retaliation by the migrants. For many day laborers, it is a second home, and for others, it is the only one. The facility is full of greenery – plants that are cared for by the staff themselves.

“This space is really a good thing,” said Jose. “But, everything they do with noise and obstacles, affects us… We are here to help serve the community, not steal from the company.”

The noise is another added layer of stress on everyday workers, who are already struggling with limited job opportunities and navigating the trauma of ICE raids. Jose was at Home Depot during the last raid, a few days before the company used the sound equipment.

He watched in horror as his colleagues were taken away and the volunteers were beaten.

“It made me angry, but I felt powerless because, what can I do?” Jose said. “If I start fighting with them, they will knock me down, they will take me.”