Overview
- More than 100 rallies and vigils are scheduled at Home Depot locations and detention centers under the Disappeared in America project led by Public Citizen Foundation, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, Workers Circle, and Detention Watch Network.
- Organizers accuse the retailer of acting as a passive partner to enforcement and are urging boycotts and “ICE Out” actions, with events planned in Chicago, Pasadena, and other cities.
- Home Depot says stores receive no advance notice of immigration operations, are not involved in them, and instruct associates not to engage and to report incidents, offering paid flexibility for staff who feel unsafe.
- Community groups report repeated detentions of day laborers during operations such as Midway Blitz and At Large at Chicago-area stores, including a Niles case where a judge ordered a man’s release, with similar actions documented in California.
- In August, Guatemalan worker Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez died after fleeing an enforcement scene near a California store, and the Department of Homeland Security said he was not being pursued at the time.