ICE Poses as Movers in Home Depot Raid, Detains 16 Undocumented Immigrants

In what appears to be a new tactic to confuse immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were seen this morning riding in the back of closed moving trucks as they descended on a Home Depot in Los Angeles to conduct a raid.

Several videos taken at the site along Wilshire Blvd. show yellow moving vans from the Penske company arriving at the location, packed with agents in green uniforms and heavily armed. The truck’s rolling back gate opens, and the ICE agents emerge.

Pro-immigrant activists and eyewitnesses reported that at least 10 people were detained during the raid, which allegedly took place just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Activists also warned immigrants to be cautious of these types of trucks, which are now replacing the out-of-state license plate SUVs ICE agents had previously used.

“Even though ICE activity has slowed down in the past four weeks, immigration raids have not stopped,” said Ron Gochez, head of Unión del Barrio, in a video posted on their social media today, where he confirmed the latest raid at the Home Depot on Wilshire Blvd. near MacArthur Park.

He added that similar actions have also taken place at a Home Depot in Paramount, in Hollywood, and at a car wash in Lakewood in recent days.

“We can’t trust this fascist President to respect court decisions that don’t favor him,” Gochez added, referring to the latest decision by an appeals court, which on Friday, August 1, upheld a lower court’s order to temporarily block federal immigration agents from conducting immigration-related arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause.

In the ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a federal judge that immigration agents cannot use race, ethnicity, or other factors — including speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent — as the basis for reasonable suspicion to stop individuals.

“We agree with the district court that, in the context of the Central District of California, the four enumerated factors at issue — apparent race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent, particular location, and type of work — even when considered together, describe only a broad profile and do not demonstrate reasonable suspicion for any particular stop,” the three-judge panel stated.

The appeals court noted that the Trump administration did not dispute in filings that stops in Los Angeles have occurred based on those factors, nor did it dispute the district court’s conclusion that reliance on them “does not satisfy the constitutional requirement of reasonable suspicion.”

Pro-immigrant groups celebrated the ruling, but activists say it will not prevent ICE from conducting future raids.

And the new tactic of using moving vans will likely spread more fear among the already frazzled undocumented community.

“For those who thought Immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,” acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli posted on X, shortly after the raid. “The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”