"At a Home Depot parking lot, a man patrols on a bicycle for federal immigration agents, toting a megaphone on his hip so he can blast a warning to day laborers waiting to land a landscaping or construction job. The workers from Mexico, El Salvador and elsewhere carry whistles to also sound the alarm, while activists swap details over two-way radios about whether cars whizzing by could be unmarked vehicles carrying officers preparing for a raid."
"Their work is cut out for them. Agents have raided the lot outside the 108,000 square-foot Home Depot store in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles at least five times this summer, rounding up some immigrants and sending others running in search of safety. Home Depot stores in Southern California have long been an informal job-seeking hub for day laborers in the country both legally and illegally. Now the locations have become a prime target for immigration agents."
"In fact, Home Depot was reportedly mentioned as a target for immigration raids by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, earlier this year. At least a dozen Home Depot stores have been targeted, some of them repeatedly, in Southern California since the administration stepped up its immigration crackdown this summer."
At a Home Depot parking lot in Van Nuys, a man patrols on a bicycle for federal immigration agents, carrying a megaphone to warn day laborers seeking landscaping or construction jobs. Workers from Mexico, El Salvador and elsewhere use whistles and activists use two-way radios to monitor passing cars for unmarked vehicles that could carry officers. Federal agents have raided the lot outside the 108,000 square-foot store at least five times this summer, prompting some immigrants to flee. Home Depot locations in Southern California have long been informal job-seeking hubs and have become repeated targets of immigration enforcement. The Supreme Court allowed federal agents to continue large-scale operations in Los Angeles for now, drawing criticism from advocates.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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