As calls to stop President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign continue, activists are also calling on businesses and corporations to do their part to protect immigrants.
At a protest outside a Home Depot store in Belmont Cragin Saturday morning, activists and elected officials called on the company to refuse entry to federal agents who are trying to get inside the store and revamp its policies to protect customers, staff and day laborers from being detained on company property.
A few dozen people gathered outside the store, 1919 N. Cicero Ave., holding signs that read “Chicago says no ICE” and “Noem Depot,” a reference to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The crowd sang in Spanish, accompanied by a band of drums, an accordion and a standing bass.
Organizers accused Home Depot of failing to protect its workers and customers from federal agents, saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement has targeted day laborers, including immigrants, who look for work by gathering outside Home Depot and other home improvement stores.
“For the last 30 years, the company has profited from day laborers who gather at their stores,” Geovanni Celaya, migrant worker organizer at the group Latino Union, said. “It’s important that we hold Home Depot accountable and demand that Home Depot does something.”
Celaya made specific demands of Home Depot, asking the company to bar federal agents from its property, lock doors during immigration raids, establish a policy on immigration and federal agents, support and provide resources to families affected by raids on Home Depot property and release security video footage of those raids.
“We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations. We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate,”
George Lane, a spokesperson for the company, told the Sun-Times Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez addresses a few dozen protesters gathered Saturday at Home Depot in Belmont Cragin. “You may not want to pay attention to the congresswoman in this district, but you will pay attention to all of the people that are saying, ‘Enough is enough, we can’t purchase from you if you’re going to continue to harm and demonize and allow for our community neighbors to be under attack,’” Ramirez said of Home Depot and other businesses that may be reluctant to change their policies unless they affect their bottom lines.
Mary Norkol/Sun-Times
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, who represents the state’s 3rd district that includes the Home Depot where Saturday’s protest was held, said she met with members of Home Depot’s corporate office, who told her the company doesn’t work with ICE but can’t stop them from coming into their stores. Ramirez called that “BS,” saying private businesses have the right to refuse service and access to anybody and contrasting that stance to small businesses, of which in Chicago have locked their doors and posted signs that federal agents aren’t allowed inside.
“I can’t come in and campaign and collect signatures in there, right? Why can ICE come in there?” Ramirez said. “If someone that’s experiencing homelessness cannot find warmth inside that Home Depot, why can … Gregory Bovino come into the Home Depot and cause chaos?”
Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th), who was handcuffed and briefly detained by federal agents last month when she questioned whether they had a warrant for a detainee, said she and other organizers and elected officials are mulling whether an organized boycott of Home Depot would be effective, and said she’s considering a general strike to protest the Trump administration and specifically its immigration tactics.
“We need to continue to hold [accountable] these corporate head folks that benefit and profit out of the hands of immigrants who won’t say a damn thing to protect the people that put money in their pockets,” Fuentes said. “The way that we do that is by withholding our money from a corporation like Home Depot. The way that we do that is by making sure that our neighbors put their money elsewhere, into businesses that are going to dignify them and protect them.”
Fuentes and Ramirez acknowledged it may take more than activists and elected officials applying pressure to get Home Depot and other corporations to adhere to their demands. They acknowledged the possibility that Home Depot and other companies may not come out against the Trump administration and its immigration tactics unless they affect their bottom line.
“You may not want to pay attention to the congresswoman in this district, but you will pay attention to all of the people that are saying, ‘Enough is enough, we can’t purchase from you if you’re going to continue to harm and demonize and allow for our community neighbors to be under attack,’” Ramirez said.
Fuentes said she’s been in touch with the families of several people who have been detained, some who are day laborers, and processed at a suburban Broadview facility that has become a de facto detention center where detainees are reportedly held for days without access to showers or hot food. Other families haven’t been able to get in touch with their loved ones who have been detained and don’t know where they are.
“They have not been given the right to call an attorney and to make a call to their family,” Fuentes said. “We are seeing not just physical assault and violations to Latino bodies, but we’re also watching constitutional rights being violated at every single turn.”