Activists call for Home Depot to bar ICE from using its lots

Across the country, federal ICE agents have been rounding up a record number of undocumented people with no criminal records, including by indiscriminately picking them off in Home Depot parking lots after long-time Trump immigration adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller ordered it so.

While such ICE activity has been reported at Home Depot stores in Los Angeles, federal immigration agents haven’t taken to doing it in Phoenix — at least so far. But on Wednesday, one long-time community organizer from Phoenix’s Latino community joined the growing chorus of people calling for Home Depot to push back on ICE nationally or face a boycott.

Salvador Reza and his Barrio Defense Committees led the fight against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the early 2010s, protesting Arpaio’s enforcement of the infamous Senate Bill 1070 and helping organize commercial boycotts of Arizona.

At a Wednesday press conference outside the Home Depot on Thomas Road and 36th Street, Reza noted that customers and jornaleros — the day laborers who hang around home improvement stores looking for work, and who are sometimes undocumented — are being targeted in California. Reza called on Home Depot to protect both by preventing ICE from operating on its property, noting that the Los Angeles Dodgers turned away immigration agents and vehicles that tried to enter the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

“Home Depot, as a private institution and private business, can prevent (ICE) from going into their parking lots just the way the Dodgers did,” Reza said, noting that the Trump administration is hurting the company’s business just as much as a boycott would.

While one Home Depot co-founder has criticized Trump for his tariff policy, Home Depot has historically been known for supporting conservatives. The late Bernie Marcus, a billionaire co-founder and Republican megadonor, supported Trump even as the presidential candidate faced federal charges leading up to the 2024 election.

The 92-year-old civil rights activist Roberto Reveles, who co-founded immigrant advocacy organization Somos America and planned one of the biggest marches in state history over anti-immigrant legislation, said ICE agents “are intimidating consumers and workers alike.”

Reza also recounted a recent call with Francisco Uribe, the director of government relations for Home Depot. According to Reza, Uribe said that it is not the company’s policy to get involved in politics.

“He let me know that they do not want to upset the other side, talking about the Trump side,” Reza recalled. “Well, they’re upsetting us — and that’s why we’re here.”

Home Depot’s response

Uribe did not respond to a request for comment from Phoenix New Times. Home Depot spokeswoman Beth Marlowe provided a statement to New Times, but did not address specific questions about whether the company can bar ICE from operating in its lots without a warrant.

“We aren’t notified that ICE activities are going to happen, and in many cases, we don’t know that they’ve taken place until they’re over,” Marlowe wrote. “We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate.”

Two weeks ago, Marlowe told the Daily Beast that Home Depot was not working with ICE.

“We tell associates to report (raids) immediately and not to engage with the activity for their safety,” she told the outlet. “If associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer them the option to go home for the rest of the day, with pay.”

Back in February, Reza also threatened to organize a boycott of Home Depot and Walmart. In that instance, Reza claimed the stores were planning to begin reporting day laborers for trespassing and that Phoenix police were preparing to respond, cite and perhaps arrest them. Marlowe denied that accusation at the time.

"As we often do, we’re partnering with local law enforcement to prevent issues such as shoplifting and illegal drug use in order to ensure a safe and secure work and shopping environment for our associates and customers,” Marlowe told New Times in February.

The national organization that advocates on behalf of day laborers also called on Home Depot to issue a statement about ICE’s presence on their property. Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said in a written statement that “Home Depot might not have asked to be ground zero for the Trump Administration’s brutal assault on Americans, but here we are, and it is far past time for the company to take a stand.”

Home Depot has not yet done so. Reza shared a Mexican proverb about the company’s silence: “El que calla, otorga.”

“He who stays silent is complicit.”