New York Communities Demand Safety and Human Rights at Manhattan Home Depot

MANHATTAN, NY – December 13 – With courage, unity, and contagious energy, immigrant day laborers, community advocates, and customers from across New York City turned up the pressure on Home Depot today, demanding that the company take immediate action to stop ICE operations on its properties nationwide.

Over two hundred participants representing the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Global Exchange, Red de Pueblos Transnacionales, ICE Out of NY, Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and The People’s Forum gathered at the Home Depot at 40 W 23rd Street. They filled the store with chants, songs (led by Resistance Revival Chorus), and peaceful, bold action, sending an unmistakable message: Home Depot must stop enabling ICE’s climate of fear and violence.

Protesters emphasized that Home Depot stores have become ground zero for a human-rights crisis, with ICE raids across the country leading to escalating chaos, trauma, and danger for workers, customers, and local communities. Home Depot’s continued silence, they argued, is unacceptable.

Statement from Pablo Alvarado, Co-Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):

“We have done everything we can to urge Home Depot to show basic concern for human rights and safety. For months ICE has attacked immigrants and terrorized families across the country. Raids of day laborers at Home Depot are among the worst — but not the only — examples of this brutality and cruelty.

“Home Depot could resist ICE, but it doesn’t. It could defend day laborers and protect  its customers’ safety, but it doesn’t. It could publicly and clearly refuse to allow its properties to be used in the Administration’s mass-deportation campaign, but it doesn’t.

“And so today, with no other options, we are going into the stores to make our message loud, clear, and unmistakable. We are doing this in the name of our fallen brothers, and for all immigrants who deserve safety and respect.”

Statement from Manolo De Los Santos, Executive Director of The People’s Forum:

“Across the country, communities are rising up against the brutality of ICE raids and deportations—and today, New Yorkers have shown that we won’t stand for Home Depot’s complicity in this brutality. People everywhere are taking the streets in huge numbers to demand an end to the attacks on immigrant communities by the Trump administration and their billionaire agenda, and we will only get stronger!”

“For decades, Home Depots across the country have been essential places for day laborers to find work, and working people to purchase supplies. But under the Trump administration, Home Depots have become flashpoints for federal immigration enforcement–sites of raids that terrorize and sweep up hardworking people simply trying to earn a living and support their families. Ordinary mornings and afternoons spent waiting for work or buying materials needed for jobs have instead become filled with fear and anxiety. ICE’s violent attacks on our immigrant neighbors at and around Home Depots make our neighborhoods less safe for everyone. Home Depot must not allow its stores to be a staging ground for ICE operations, and must speak out against these abductions. Home Depot has a responsibility to ensure their stores remain safe spaces, where anyone can go shopping, and workers can seek employment without fear of being detained or deported,” said Murad Awawdeh, President & CEO, New York Immigration Coalition.

A Unified Call for Action

Community leaders reiterated that day laborers depend on Home Depot to connect with customers, and they do not oppose the company itself. Rather, they demand that Home Depot:

1. Publicly condemn ICE raids on its properties

2. Reject the use of its stores as sites of intimidation or surveillance

3. Commit to ensuring all people can gather, shop, and work in safety–regardless of immigration status

A Campaign Growing in Strength

Today’s highly coordinated action–which included protests inside the store and a rally outside–was the culmination of a day of nonviolent mobilization, with participants doing buy-in, outreach efforts, and creative forms of protest to make their message visible across Manhattan.

NDLON and its partners call on all people of conscience to keep the momentum alive.

Join the campaign. Spread the word. Demand that Home Depot take a stand.
Together, we say: ICE out of Home Depot–everywhere!

For pictures and videos of this Day of Action go HERE.

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