A Home Depot store in Los Angeles has installed high-frequency noise machines outside its premises, a move advocates for immigrant day labourers claim is a deliberate tactic to drive them from the property. Workers report the sound causes headaches, nausea, and is so intense it "penetrates your bones."
Weaponised Sound and Community Backlash
The devices were mounted on lamp posts in the car park of the Cypress Park location, which sits under a highway overpass. According to the advocacy group Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), the machines were activated just days after the most recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at that same store.
At a press conference, IDEPSCA's executive director, Maegan Ortiz, alleged Home Depot deployed the technology to clear the car park. "We're not going to let sound machines, gates and intimidation get rid of us," Ortiz stated defiantly. "Day labourers are here to stay. IDEPSCA is here to stay. The immigrant community is here to stay."
Los Angeles city councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who attended the conference, condemned the action. "They chose to weaponize sound," she said in remarks shared on Instagram. "Devices like these are used as torture against our people."
A History of ICE Targeting and a Citizen's Ordeal
The Cypress Park Home Depot has long been a gathering point for undocumented day labourers seeking work, but it has also become a focal point for aggressive immigration enforcement. Ortiz reported that ICE agents have detained approximately 50 people at this location so far this year.
In a particularly alarming incident reported by the Los Angeles Times, ICE agents detained a US citizen at the store while his toddler was in the car, and then drove away with the child. This pattern of enforcement escalated under the Trump administration's deportation-focused policies, with raids also reported at Home Depot stores in Los Angeles suburbs and Kern county.
Advocates are now demanding not only the removal of the noise machines but also that Home Depot publicly speak out against ICE conducting operations in its car parks.
Corporate Response and Land Dispute
Home Depot's corporate response has been limited. A spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times the company "has several initiatives we use to keep our stores safe, including human and technology resources," but did not directly address the noise machines. Another spokesperson previously stated Home Depot does not coordinate with immigration authorities and is often unaware of raids "until they're over."
Councilwoman Hernandez raised a further complication, arguing the noise machines were placed on property owned by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). "This is the people's land," she asserted. "The people's land is being used to torture the people."
During the press conference, the machines were switched off, but workers said they were turned back on roughly an hour later. One labourer now wears earplugs while waiting for work, a stark illustration of the ongoing standoff between a corporate giant, immigration authorities, and a resilient immigrant community fighting for its right to seek a livelihood.
