‘It penetrates your bones’: Temp workers protest noisy machines installed at Home Depot

Jose had a pair of blue and yellow earbuds hanging around his neck as he waited for his odd job outside the Home Depot in Cypress Park.

They’ve been a necessity for workers in the area since late November, when Home Depot installed three of the high-pitched machines in its parking lot. The noise, which often lasts throughout the day, is a piercing sound that “penetrates your bones,” he said.

The Education Institute of Southern California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit that supports day workers, held a press conference at Home Depot on Wednesday, calling on the company to remove the machines and speak out against ICE raids in its parking lots, part of growing protests against businesses working with immigration enforcement agencies.

Home Depot is available all over the country was the primary target ICE raids amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In early November, ICE agents detained a man at the Cypress Park location and drove away with his toddler in the back seat of the car.

IDEPSCA Executive Director Maegan Ortiz said about 50 people have been detained at the Cypress Park location this year. She said the machines were designed to push temporary workers out of their jobs.

The company shut down the machines during the press conference but restarted them about an hour after the meeting, according to staff. The noise can be heard at IDEPSCA’s day labor center, one of five centers run by the organization that has been supporting workers for more than two decades.

“We have been here and stayed open, providing services and creating community during a global pandemic,” Ortiz said. “We will not let the sound machine, the gates and the intimidation drive us away. Temporary unions are here to stay. IDEPSCA is here to stay. Immigrant communities are here to stay.”

Home Depot did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The New York Times. Company spokesman George Lane previously told The Times that the company does not coordinate with ICE or Border Patrol.

“We were not involved in these operations. We were not notified that immigration enforcement activity was imminent, and often we were not aware that an operation had occurred until it was completed,” Lane wrote.

The earplugs IDEPSCA provided to staff helped muffle the sound, but were not enough to completely mask the sound, he said. The noise can cause headaches, nausea and dizziness among workers, said José Salazar and Andres Salazar, the center’s on-site coordinators.

Salazar said the noise often followed him home and continued to ring in his ears long after he left the parking lot.

Ortiz said the machines were installed just days after a recent raid on the site in late November, in which temporary workers were removed and IDEPSCA workers were injured.

The machines are mounted on light poles in the parking lot just below the Highway 5 overpass. Hernandez and Ortiz said part of the parking lot is Caltrans property and is not owned by Home Depot. They urged the city to investigate the installation of the machine.

Home Depot also installed yellow barriers near the IDEPSCA Day Labor Center in a corner of Cypress Park, blocking access to the parking lot.

Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the city’s 1st Ward, said the machines were a “thoughtful choice by a multi-billion dollar company that absolutely knows what it’s doing and has chosen to weaponize sound.” “Devices like this are being used to torture our people.”

Hernandez said Home Depot relies on immigrant and Latino communities, including customers who shop inside its stores and temporary workers who find work outside its stores.

Jose said the day labor center is more than just a place to work. He asked that his last name be withheld for fear of retaliation from immigration agents. For many temporary workers, this is their second home, and for some, their only home. The center is lined with green trees, which are tended by the workers themselves.

“The space is really beautiful,” Jose said. “But everything they’re doing with the noise and the obstructions, it’s affecting us… We’re here to help serve the community, not steal from the company.”

The noise adds another layer of stress to day workers, who are already struggling with job losses and the lingering trauma of ICE raids. The last time the attack occurred, Jose was at Home Depot, just days before the company was to install the noisy machines.

He watched in horror as colleagues were taken away and volunteers beaten.

“It made me angry, but I felt powerless because, well, what do I do?” Jose said. “If I start fighting them, they’re going to knock me down, they’re going to get me.”