Demonstrators use “ice scraper protests” to denounce immigration raids, pressure action from Home Depot
By Laurie Perez
Demonstrators used a new and symbolic measure to denounce the ongoing immigration actions across Los Angeles County over the weekend at a Home Depot store in Monrovia.
The activists each purchased an ice scraper for just 17 cents at the store before getting back in line to return the item. The act clogged customer service lines, something they say is a political act urging Home Depot to keep federal agents out of their stores.
“We want to scrape ICE from our communities,” said Palmira Figueroa, the communications director for the National Day Laborers Organizing Network. “It’s kind of symbolic, right, to use an ice scraper. Buy it and try to collapse their system for a moment, or for some time, with the group of people that are witnessing and are willing to stay, to stand up for the human rights of day laborers.”
For nearly an hour, the “buy-in” operation stalled the store from operating as usual. The protesters then marched through the aisles of Home Depot, which led management to close the store down. Figueroa said that demonstrators noticed the quick action the store took, despite not closing down for any immigration operations that had previously happened in their parking lots.
“Oh, you can actually shut a store, right? You can shut for this, but you cannot, you have not, shut them when an ICE raid and abuse is happening,” she said.
CBS Los Angeles reached out to Home Depot officials for comment on the protest, but has not yet heard back. In previous requests for statements on immigration operations happening outside of their stores, Home Depot’s communications team has repeatedly said that they do not cooperate with ICE agents and are not notified of operations before they happen.
“We want for Home Depot to condemn these ICE raids on their property,” Figueroa said. “We know they can do that. They should speak out, reject the use of its stores and their sites for fear and violence.”
She says that the group could organize another similar protest at another location in the near future.
