A pair of blue and yellow earplugs dangle on Jose\u2019s neck while waiting for work as a day laborer out of the Home Depot in Cypress Park.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve 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 \u201cpenetrates your bones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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 remove the machines and vocalize opposition to the ICE raids taking place in its parking lots, part of a growing number of protests<\/a> targeting corporate cooperation with immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Home Depot locations nationwide have been a prime target<\/a> for ICE raids under President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown. In early November, ICE agents detained a man<\/a> at the Cypress Park location and then drove off with his toddler in the back of the vehicle.<\/p>\n Around 50 people have been detained at the Cypress Park location this year, said Maegan Ortiz, IDEPSCA\u2019s executive director. The machines are an attempt to push day laborers off its lots, she said.<\/p>\n The machines were turned off by the company during the press conference, but were turned back on about an hour after it ended, according to workers. The noise is in earshot of the IDEPSCA\u2019s day laborer center, one of five operated by the organization that have supported workers for over two decades.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been here and remain open through global pandemics, providing services and creating community,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let sound machines, gates and intimidation get rid of us. Day laborers are here to stay. IDEPSCA is here to stay. The immigrant community is here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n Evelyn Fornes, a spokesperson for Home Depot, wrote to The Times that the company \u201chas several initiatives we use to keep our stores safe, including human and technology resources.\u201d The company did not address questions on why or when the machines were installed. <\/p>\n George Lane, a company spokesperson, previously told The Times that the company doesn\u2019t coordinate with ICE or Border Patrol.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not involved in the operations. We aren\u2019t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and often, we don\u2019t know operations have taken place until they\u2019re over,\u201d Lane wrote.<\/p>\n Jose\u2019s earplugs, which IDEPSCA provided to workers, help muffle the sound, but aren\u2019t enough to completely mask it, he said. The noise causes workers headaches, nausea and dizziness, said Jose and Andres Salazar, the center\u2019s site coordinator.<\/p>\n Salazar said the noise often follows him home, still ringing in his ears long after he\u2019s left the parking lot.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The machines were installed on light posts in the parking lot situated directly under the 5 freeway overpass. Hernandez and Ortiz said that portion of the parking lot is Caltrans property and not owned by Home Depot. They urged the city to look into the machine\u2019s installations.<\/p>\n Home Depot also installed yellow barriers that close off access to the parking lot near IDEPSCA\u2019s day labor center, located at the corner of the Cypress Park location. <\/p>\n The machines are \u201ca deliberate choice by a multi billion dollar corporation that absolutely knew what it was doing and chose to weaponize sound literally,\u201d said Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the city\u2019s first district. \u201cDevices like these are used as torture against our people.\u201d<\/p>\n Home Depot relies on immigrant and Latino communities, Hernandez said, including customers who shop inside and day laborers, who seek work outside their storefronts.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s a second home, and for some, their only one. The center is bursting with greenery \u2013 plants that are cared for by the workers themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThis space is something truly beautiful,\u201d Jose said. \u201cBut, everything they\u2019re doing with the noise and the barriers, it is affecting us\u2026We\u2019re here to help serve the community, not steal from the company.\u201d<\/p>\n The noise is an added another layer of stress to day laborers, who are already struggling with less work opportunities and navigating lingering trauma from ICE raids. Jose was at the Home Depot when the last raid took place, only days before the company implemented the noise machines.<\/p>\n He watched in horror as coworkers were taken and volunteers were beaten.<\/p>\n \u201cIt made me angry, but I felt so impotent because, well, what do I do?\u201d Jose said. \u201cIf I start fighting them, they\u2019re going to knock me down, they\u2019re going to take me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of blue and yellow earplugs dangle on Jose\u2019s neck while waiting for work as a day…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":454653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[208381,1582,276,638,85284,105643,2321,2449,208380,5203,2961,157885,224,5337,79507,208379,9083,6566,55283,17253],"class_list":{"0":"post-454652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-andres-salazar","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-company","12":"tag-cypress-park","13":"tag-day-laborer","14":"tag-home-depot","15":"tag-ice-raid","16":"tag-idepsca","17":"tag-jose","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-late-november","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-maegan-ortiz","23":"tag-noise-machine","24":"tag-parking-lot","25":"tag-place","26":"tag-sound","27":"tag-worker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115738293408271981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}