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<\/p>\nA coalition of elected officials, unions and workers\u2019 rights groups mobilized Friday to defend a day labor center in Cypress Park as word spread that Home Depot was seeking to evict it, a claim the home improvement store denies.<\/p>\n
State Assemblymember Jessica Caloza (D-Los Angeles) said Home Depot\u2019s head of government relations and affairs called her late Thursday night and said the labor center would be served with an eviction notice.<\/p>\n
The Cypress Park Community Job Center \u2014 run by the Instituto de Educaci\u00f3n Popular del Sur de California, or IDEPSCA \u2014 sits at the edge of the parking lot of the store at 2055 N. Figueroa St., just beneath a 5 Freeway overpass. It has operated there for more than 20 years, according to Maegan Ortiz, executive director of IDEPSCA.<\/p>\n
Caloza said she sent word to local groups who mobilized and showed up to defend the center, which subleases the space from Home Depot \u2014 which, in turn, leases the property from the California Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n
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Day laborers wait for work at the Cypress Park Home Depot store in Los Angeles on Friday.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
A Caltrans spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. But in an email to The Times, Home Depot spokesperson Beth Marlowe denied that a phone call took place as Caloza described.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no plans or discussions about evicting IDEPSCA,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, nearly 100 people rallied at the center. They held signs that read \u201cProtect our workers\u201d and \u201cDefend day labor centers! Boycott Home Depot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caloza used a microphone to address the crowd as shoppers navigated the parking lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen minutes before this press conference, Home Depot has been blowing me up, my office and spreading lies this was just a simple misunderstanding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Many in the crowd booed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are done with Home Depot\u2019s lies,\u201d she said, drawing cheers and applause. \u201cMake no mistake: Only one of us is lying, and it\u2019s not us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ortiz said any effort to evict the day labor center from the site would conflict with a 2008 Los Angeles city ordinance<\/a> that requires Home Depot stores to have such facilities to manage the workers they attract. But she said there has been friction between the centers and the home improvement giant for years.<\/p>\n Maegan Ortiz \u2014 executive director of the Instituto de Educaci\u00f3n Popular del Sur de California \u2014 looks out over the parking lot of the Cypress Park Home Depot store on Friday.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The Cypress Park store made headlines in November when videos circulated on social media<\/a> of federal immigration agents arresting a U.S. citizen there and then driving off with his toddler.<\/p>\n Federal authorities at the time said the man was arrested on suspicion of assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. They said they took him and the child to another location away from angry protesters. <\/p>\n That same day, Ortiz said federal agents permanently injured one of her staff members when they handcuffed him during the operation. She said a number of workers have been detained by federal agents since last year.<\/p>\n Tensions flared in May when White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the chief architect of President Trump\u2019s immigration policies, lambasted federal agents and immigration officials, asking them: \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you at Home Depot? Why aren\u2019t you at 7-Eleven?\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n The following month, federal immigration agents escalated their operations at Home Depots<\/a> \u2014 including using a Penske rental truck<\/a> as a \u201cTrojan Horse\u201d in L.A. to catch immigrant workers off guard.<\/p>\n The city received a bit of a reprieve in July when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from conducting \u201cindiscriminate\u201d immigration stops and arrests in Southern California. In September, however, the Supreme Court cleared the way <\/a>for federal agents to continue the operations.<\/p>\n Ortiz said the Cypress Park center is one of five IDEPSCA operates across the city. There are two others operated by other organizations. She said the centers provide more than just jobs; they can connect individuals with an array of services, including housing. <\/p>\n L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Cypress Park, said the alleged move to evict the center was \u201canother case of Home Depot exposing itself as a complicit corporation willing to profit off immigrant labor but unwilling to stand with workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Marlowe said Home Depot is not \u201cnotified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren\u2019t involved in the operations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t coordinating with ICE or Border Patrol,\u201d Marlowe said. \u201cWe cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770439393_278_.jpeg\")
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