At the Van Nuys Home Depot parking lot, where hundreds of day laborers gathered daily to find work, only a fraction of them are there now. Only a few food vendors remain on the street, once lined with stands.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has unleashed his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations. Targeting Los Angeles, masked and armed federal agents without required warrants have apprehended Latinos from job sites, outside immigration courts, schools, streets, parks and places of worship.
The Van Nuys Home Depot on Balboa Boulevard has been hit more than once with federal agents rushing in, wrestling people to the ground, and arresting what laborers estimate to be about 50 people.
Despite the risk, a handful of laborers are still searching for jobs outside the home improvement store with the fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could return.
“We’re scared because of the raids and what happened,” said a day laborer who emigrated from Honduras. “But, a lot of people are still out here looking for work because they don’t have any other options.”
In the past, they’ve felt safe as the Van Nuys Day Laborers Job Center is located in the Home Depot parking lot, which has helped to facilitate temporary work for them.
When a car pulled up, he ran over to the rolled-down window and hopped in the back seat after a quick negotiation. Several cars followed, loaded with construction tools.
During one operation, on July 8, masked Border Patrol agents arrested around a dozen laborers, as well as four United States citizens accused of impeding the federal agents.
The citizens spent two days in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA, the area’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters, before being released from custody.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino told media outlets the four were arrested for impeding and obstructing their efforts by “using improvised spike strip devices aimed at disabling our vehicles.” The charges have yet to be confirmed.
One of the detained citizens, Northeast Valley activist Ernersto Ayala, was working as an outreach coordinator at the Van Nuys Day Laborers Center, while another of those detained, Jude Allard, was working as a volunteer. They have not yet returned to work, an employee at the center told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol on Tuesday morning.
The Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) oversees several Day Laborers Community Job Centers, including the one located in Van Nuys. Established to help workers safely find jobs, the job centers provide legal and educational resources, as well as functioning as a public safety alternative for workers by providing shade, shelter, water and snacks to those often soliciting employment for hours in the heat.
“It’s like a community here,” said a day laborer from Mexico, who is currently experiencing homelessness. “There is a lot of work here, and resources with the center.”
He added that if ICE comes, he can run to the center for protection. Around his neck hung a whistle, provided by Immigo immigration services, which the laborers can use to quickly alert one another of ICE activity.
Immigo works with the job center to provide legal resources and education to the laborers and street vendors in the area.
“Immigo supports individuals here to become citizens so that they can legally work in this country and become new voters and new representatives of our nation,” said Julian Alexander Makara, a volunteer with the nonprofit. “The unfortunate reality is that the process that we have to become legal in this country is filled with a lot of bureaucratic jargon, and it’s very expensive.”
Several organizations, including Valley Defense, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the People’s Struggle San Fernando Valley and Immigo, have started patrolling the Van Nuys location due to the increase in federal immigration enforcement activity.
“There have been hundreds of people here receiving work and passing through the labor center as of now, it’s not a tenth of the volume that you [normally] see,” said Makara. “You can see the fear in the individual’s eyes … their due process is being taken away. There’s no habeas corpus.”
He noted that many people are staying home out of fear, but are still facing the financial burdens of rent, bills and groceries. As agents continue to operate without providing warrants, without following protocols, then, Makara said he and others will be doing what they can to be responsible citizens for their immigrant neighbors.
“We as a community really need to ensure that they have a sense of safety,” said Makara. “This isn’t a color thing. It’s not red or blue. It’s not a legal thing. It’s a human thing.”
