Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at MacArthur Park on Saturday to denounce ICE in response to the multiple immigration enforcement operations at Home Depot stores.
Protestors marched peacefully through downtown LA, calling for a boycott of Home Depot, citing that the home improvement stores have become a staging ground for federal agents.
More than a dozen people were detained Wednesday outside the store on Wilshire Boulevard in the Westlake area in an operation called “Trojan Horse,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Border Patrol conducted a targeted raid that resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua, DHS added.
The operation comes about one month after local leaders, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, condemned the large presence of federal agents at MacArthur Park.
“It’s important because it’s making a change, it’s letting ICE know that we’re not going to be scared. This is our park. You’re not going to keep taking our black and brown people, our indigenous people,” said activist Nathalie Dixon.
The rally held Saturday by the Boycott Home Depot Coalition represents about 50 different organizations.
“We want the LAPD to protect the people, to protect the folks that they’re sworn to protect, and we also want people to be taken out of detention, out of deportation proceedings,” said Reverend Edgar Rivera Colon.
Video clips from San Bernardino captured the tense moments during another immigration operation at a Home Depot on Thursday.
Witnesses said more than six SUVs pulled up with armed federal agents in the back of the Home Depot parking lot on 21st Street near the 210 Freeway.
More than a dozen day laborers who gathered in the area earlier began to run as soon as they saw the federal agents, according to the witnesses.
Several witnesses shared cellphone video clips with NBC Los Angeles as the dramatic scene unfolded at around 9 a.m. At least one person can be seen in the video being detained by what appears to be federal agents.
NBC4 reached out to ICE for comment on the rally, but it did not respond.