Day Laborers Protest Noise Machines at Home Depot
A pair of blue and yellow earplugs dangle on Jose’s neck while waiting for work as a day laborer out of the Home Depot in Cypress Park. They’ve been a necessity for laborers in the area since late November, when Home Depot installed three machines in the parking lot that emit a high-pitched tone. The noise, typically kept on all day, is a piercing sound that “penetrates your bones,” he said.
The Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit that supports day laborers, held a press conference at Home Depot Wednesday, calling for the company to remove the machines and vocalize opposition to the ICE raids taking place in its parking lots, part of a growing number of protests targeting corporate cooperation with immigration enforcement. According to Maegan Ortiz, IDEPSCA’s executive director, around 50 people have been detained at the Cypress Park location this year, and the machines are an attempt to push day laborers off its lots.
ICE Raids and Noise Machines
Home Depot locations nationwide have been a prime target for ICE raids under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In early November, ICE agents detained a man at the Cypress Park location and then drove off with his toddler in the back of the vehicle. The machines were installed only days after the latest raid at the location in late November, during which day laborers were taken and IDEPSCA staff members were harmed, Ortiz said.
The noise causes workers headaches, nausea, and dizziness, said Jose and Andres Salazar, the center’s site coordinator. Salazar said the noise often follows him home, still ringing in his ears long after he’s left the parking lot. The machines were installed on light posts in the parking lot situated directly under the 5 freeway overpass, which Hernandez and Ortiz said is Caltrans property and not owned by Home Depot.
Community Response
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the city’s first district, said the machines are “a deliberate choice by a multi billion dollar corporation that absolutely knew what it was doing and chose to weaponize sound literally.” Home Depot relies on immigrant and Latino communities, Hernandez said, including customers who shop inside and day laborers, who seek work outside their storefronts.
The day laborer center is more than just a workplace, said Jose, who asked to withhold his last name for fear of retaliation by immigration agents. For many day laborers, it’s a second home, and for some, their only one. The center is bursting with greenery – plants that are cared for by the workers themselves. “This space is something truly beautiful,” Jose said. “But, everything they’re doing with the noise and the barriers, it is affecting us…We’re here to help serve the community, not steal from the company.”
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