Home Depot Labor Protest!
New Jersey, July 5 (EFE). -By Ruth E. Hernández Beltrán
Latino day laborers in the United States are no longer attending “recruitment” sites due to increased police presence and fear of raids and deportations. For decades, sectors such as construction, domestic work, and agriculture have relied on the daily labor of thousands of immigrants.
Day laborers are easily recognizable because they gather on street corners, at bus stops, and in parking lots outside businesses, waiting to be hired for days or weeks at a time.
This visibility makes them vulnerable to immigration raids, particularly since White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller — the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy — ordered agents to meet daily arrest quotas by specifically targeting day laborers at Home Depot and 7-Eleven stores.
Nadia Marín of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) told EFE that day laborers are afraid and angry about policies that judge them based on their skin color and the way they speak.
They are being forced to choose between paying rent and helping their families or facing arrest. However, necessity has led them to continue working, and many have sought options elsewhere.
Others stay home for several days when they receive alerts about the presence of immigration agents.
Alerts are often passed by other community members in an act of solidarity against the Trump administration’s aggressive raids. Many are outraged by the images seen in Los Angeles, where the National Guard was sent to confront protesters.
Similarly, this week in East Windsor, New Jersey, residents entered a Home Depot, displayed signs with messages such as “ICE out of Home Depot,” and demanded that the retail chain stop cooperating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, after agents were present at some of these businesses.
“Home Depot doesn’t allow them to come to the store. Just as they called the police during the protest, saying it’s a private business and forcing the activists to leave, they can do the same with ICE,” an activist told EFE.
“They can prevent them from entering because it’s a private place,” the activist added.
Arrested for using the bathroom
An anonymous Honduran man told EFE that the business’s parking lot used to be a meeting place for day laborers looking for work.
However, after Trump’s return to the White House, everything changed. The man claimed that he was arrested just for using the bathroom on the premises.
“I felt discriminated against because I didn’t steal anything. I’m not a criminal. I just came to look for work, and I pay taxes,” he said.
The police officer told me I had entered private property, but I told him many people came here,” the man recalled. He was finally released after calling a lawyer.
He said that there were usually about 60 day laborers at the site, but that the number dropped after the business’s security warned them that they would call immigration authorities.
“It’s been a constant threat since Trump took office. They feel they have authority,” said the day laborer.
“My colleagues are terrified. Some have not worked for days and are behind on their rent. They are worried. Those of us who have work permits are coming, but the others, who are the majority, are not,” he said.
The fear of going out on the streets is impacting industries such as construction, gardening, house cleaning, agriculture, and restaurants because day laborers are also consumers, and they have stopped going to businesses due to raids.
“They fill an economic need,” said Marín, who expressed concern that contractors might take advantage of them and steal their wages, a problem that immigrants often face.
“If they complain, they are threatened with being reported to Immigration,” she said. EFE rh/mcd
