Over the weekend, a Home Depot in Monrovia turned into an unlikely stage for immigration politics.
Protesters bought cheap ice scrapers for 17 cents, then lined up to return them in a kind of slow-motion sit-in at the customer service counter.
Their goal, according to organizers interviewed by CBS LA’s Laurie Perez, was simple and symbolic: pressure Home Depot to publicly reject immigration raids that have taken place in and around its parking lots.
Home Depot, for its part, is now being defended on national television by commentators who say the company has “nothing to do with ICE activity” and is being unfairly targeted.
The clash says a lot about how immigration fights are increasingly being waged through consumer activism and corporate pressure campaigns, whether or not the company actually controls what protesters are mad about.
A Protest Built Around a 17-Cent Ice Scraper
In her video report for CBS LA, Laurie Perez describes a demonstration that looks more like performance art than a traditional rally.
One by one, she says, “hundreds” of people picked up an ice scraper off the shelves at the Monrovia Home Depot, paid for it, then immediately joined a long line to return it.
The idea wasn’t to keep the tool.
It was to clog the front of the store so badly that business couldn’t run normally.
According to Perez, the “buy-in” action went on for nearly an hour and successfully stalled normal operations.
When protesters then began marching through the aisles, Home Depot managers chose to shut down the store entirely.
That detail matters a lot to the demonstrators.
To them, it proves the store can move fast and decisively when it wants to.
“We Want To Scrape ICE From Our Communities”
The ice scraper wasn’t a random prop.
Palmira Figueroa, communications director for the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON), told Perez that the group chose the item precisely because of the wordplay.
“We want to scrape ICE from our communities,” Figueroa explained, leaning into the metaphor.
In the CBS LA report, she frames the action as “kind of symbolic” — buying the scrapers, then using the returns process to “collapse their system for a moment.”
For Figueroa, the stunt is not just about disruption.
It’s about gathering “a group of people that are witnessing and are willing to stand up for the human rights of day laborers.”
Her comments underline what this protest is really about: not a plastic tool, but the day laborers who wait for work outside many Home Depot locations and who fear being swept up in immigration raids.
From that angle, the store is less a hardware chain and more a stage where workers, employers, and federal agents all cross paths.
Activists Want Home Depot To Pick a Side
Figueroa and other organizers told Perez they’re not satisfied with silence or neutrality.
They want Home Depot to publicly condemn immigration raids happening on or around its properties.
“We want for Home Depot to condemn these ICE raids on their property,” Figueroa told CBS LA.
She added that the company “should speak out, reject the use of its stores and their sites for fear and violence.”
In her report, Perez notes that Home Depot locations have been used as gathering spots for day laborers for years.
Construction crews stop there to buy tools and often hire help from the groups waiting outside.
That reality has made store parking lots natural targets for immigration operations.
Perez recalls a previous protest after agents “flooded the Monrovia Home Depot parking lot,” handcuffing workers waiting for jobs.
In that earlier incident, one laborer was struck and killed by an SUV as the chaos unfolded, though federal officials told reporters agents were not pursuing the vehicle.
For activists, those kinds of scenes are exactly why they feel Home Depot can’t just shrug and say, “We don’t control this.”
They see a moral responsibility to use corporate power – and property rights – to push ICE away.
Home Depot’s Line: We Don’t Cooperate With ICE
Perez reports that CBS LA reached out to Home Depot for comment on the “ice scraper protests,” but had not heard back at the time of her story.
However, she notes that in previous statements about immigration operations outside their stores, Home Depot’s communications team has insisted the company does not cooperate with ICE and is not notified in advance of raids.
That’s an important distinction.
The chain’s public position is basically: we don’t invite ICE, we don’t help ICE, and we don’t control what federal agents do in public areas.
Whether that satisfies anyone is another question.
From a legal standpoint, Home Depot can’t tell federal immigration agents they can’t stand on a public street or enforce federal law.
But from an activist standpoint, the company could arguably do more — from issuing stronger public statements to re-designing how and where workers gather on its property.
This is where the debate turns from “Are they complicit?” to “Are they doing enough?” and reasonable people can disagree.
Fox Business: “Classic Liberal Logic, Protest First, Fact-Check Later”
On Fox Business’ The Bottom Line, hosts Gerri Willis and Marcus Lemonis took a very different view of the ice scraper protests.
Lemonis mocked the action as “classic liberal logic, protest first, fact-check later.”
He argued that anti-ICE demonstrators were targeting the wrong villain.
Fox News contributor Liz Peek, appearing as a guest, said she “almost admire[s] the performative art capabilities” of the demonstration and called the “scrape ICE out of Home Depot” theme “clever.”
But like Lemonis, she stressed that “Home Depot has nothing to do with the ICE activities.”
Peek explained that day laborers gather in Home Depot parking lots because “that’s where the construction guys come to pick up tools,” and they hire workers there.
Because of that, she said, ICE “has been showing up at these places,” but that fact “has nothing to do with Home Depot.”
In her view, protesters are actually hurting “the company that is hiring a lot of the people they pretend to care about,” since Home Depot employs many immigrants as regular staff.
That’s a key counterargument: if you hurt the store, you may also be hurting the very workers you claim to defend.
Legal Immigration, Illegal Immigration, And Political Messaging
Peek also used the segment to make a broader political point about immigration rhetoric.
She said Democrats and the organizations backing these protests “continue to conflate immigrants with illegal immigrants,” which she called misleading and unfair.
She argued that the National Day Laborers Organizing Network is “mostly involved in people who are here illegally,” and questioned whether the interests of legal immigrants should be “thrown aside” for those without legal status.
Lemonis, who identified himself on air as an immigrant, said it was “frustrating to see” how the issue is being handled.
Peek added that “Republicans are in favor of immigration, not illegal immigration,” stressing that the latter is – by definition – illegal.
Whether viewers agree or disagree, the Fox Business segment makes clear that conservative commentators see the ice scraper protests as part of a larger progressive strategy to punish corporations for broader federal policies.
Instead of pressing Congress or the White House, they argue, activists are going after whatever big brand happens to be physically nearby.
Are Protesters Targeting The Right Villain?
Looking at both sides, you can see why this fight is so emotionally charged.
On one hand, Palmira Figueroa and the day-laborer advocates are responding to real fear on the ground.
When workers are handcuffed in a parking lot, or when someone dies in the chaos of an operation, it’s understandable that people look for ways to push back.
Their ice scraper action, reported by Laurie Perez, is creative, peaceful, and designed to send a message through inconvenience rather than violence.
On the other hand, Liz Peek and the Fox Business hosts have a point about power and jurisdiction.
ICE is a federal agency.
Home Depot doesn’t write immigration law, issue warrants, or decide where agents set up operations on public streets.
There’s also a fair question about collateral damage.
If protests escalate into regular store shutdowns, it won’t just be corporate executives who feel it – it’ll be cashiers, stockers, and yes, immigrant employees whose hours or jobs might be cut.
Corporate Responsibility In An Age Of Activism
The deeper question here isn’t really about a 17-cent ice scraper.
It’s about what we expect from big companies in the middle of national political battles.
Figueroa and NDLON want Home Depot to explicitly condemn ICE raids and reject the use of its sites “for fear and violence.”
They believe a corporation of that size has a moral duty to use its influence on behalf of vulnerable workers who rely on its parking lots for survival.
Peek, Willis, and Lemonis see that expectation as misplaced and even dangerous.
In their eyes, tying every corporate brand to every government action that happens near its property turns businesses into permanent political punching bags.
My own sense is that both perspectives capture part of the reality.
Home Depot probably doesn’t “control” ICE in any meaningful way.
But it does control its messaging, its security policies, and how loudly it speaks about what happens at its stores.
Silence might be neutral on paper, but to people living in fear, it often feels like choosing a side.
The ice scraper protest may not change federal immigration policy.
It may not even change Home Depot’s official stance.
But it clearly shows that immigration enforcement isn’t just happening in courtrooms and border zones.
It’s happening in familiar parking lots and big-box aisles – and ordinary shoppers are being asked to pick up a receipt, and a side, along the way.
This article first appeared on Survival World.
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The article Home Depot says they have nothing to do with raids after mass “ice scraper protests” first appeared on Survival World.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
