LOS ANGELES, CA - While Los Angeles can’t get water to put out wildfires and the police department is saying they may not have adequate security for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics, radical pro-illegal alien groups in the City of Angels are demanding a $2 million per year funding increase to help them fight Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and maintain buildings outside of Home Depot stores in the city, The New York Post reports.
The additional funds would be in addition to the $1 million per year already allocated by the Los Angeles City Council. The buildings located outside the hardware chain’s stores provide free restrooms, free legal services, and employment advice for day laborers, the vast majority of whom are illegal aliens. Eighty percent of those using the shelters are illegal aliens, The Post reported.
Although we’ve seen so-called “non-governmental agencies,” aka NGOs, engaged in fraud nationwide, some city council members are backing a move that would fund groups such as the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), which support illegal alien criminals.
One such council member is socialist Eunisses Hernandez, who said, “The work centers have been a rescue due to the conditions we have been living in. That’s why I’m asking that the budget be increased to $3 million for these work centers,” at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting last week. The proposed city budget is expected to exceed $15 billion.
Not everyone supports the increased funding request, including Susan Collins of Sherman Oaks, a frequent critic of city spending.
“I’m a first-generation American. I support immigration and value that immigrants contribute,” Collins said. “But when the city tells taxpayers there isn’t enough money to keep city streetlights on or fix our roads, this is not the moment to triple funding for these trailer programs.”
The money would be used in part to fight the federal government in its deportation efforts against some of the over 15 million illegal aliens allowed to invade the country by the Biden administration.
“The demand for deportation defense has never been greater,” CARECEN representative Diana Camilla told the budget and finance committee in hearings.
According to city records, the average cost to taxpayers for running just one of these day worker centers, in this case at a Home Depot in Cypress Park, is $121,684 annually. City records show that LA taxpayers paid $77,000 to set up the center, which was supposed to run seven days a week from 6 a.m.
One worker who claims to be a legal US resident, Pablo Flores, works out of Cypress Park and told The California Post that the center is open only between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. He claimed that between 20 and 25 workers at that location were detained by ICE in recent months. He said only one employee staffs that location when it’s open, but he doesn’t know what they do.
Home Depot was roped into the program by LA officials in the 1990s to curb the chaos caused by day laborers gathering outside its stores, and it leased parking spaces to the city, where the hubs were built.
The Post visited a West LA Home Depot, where a worker told the outlet he used to regularly see employees from Educacion Popular del Sur de California, a nonprofit funded by the city of Los Angeles that operated at that location. Now, he rarely sees anyone show up, and when they do, they are in the company of a lawyer.
The Post recently visited the Westlake Home Depot and found the center largely empty, while day laborers gathered across the lot near the entrance where contractors typically pull up to hire.
The system began in the 1990s and 2000s, when day laborers gathered outside hardware stores and along busy roadways, waiting for work, prompting residents to complain about traffic congestion, disorder, and public disturbances. That led city leaders to develop the idea to move hiring into designated, city-backed spaces with city oversight and basic amenities.
The city browbeat home improvement stores into setting aside space for these centers through land-use approvals, with some leasing parking lot land to the city for just $1 per year.
By so doing, companies such as Home Depot were dragged into the immigration issue, often putting the stores at odds with the community because law enforcement operations often took place where one would expect: where a lot of illegal aliens gather.
“We weren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities were going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations,” a Home Depot spokesperson told The Post. “We aren’t coordinating with ICE or Border Patrol. We cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots.”
Despite Home Depot having no say in the matter, some radicals are calling for a boycott of the home improvement chain, including far-left progressive State Assembly member Jessica Caloza.
“I urge Angelenos to boycott Home Depot and support our local small businesses,” Caloza said.
Caloza tried to blame Home Depot for the fact that Los Angeles basically forced the company to open these centers on their property, and then complained when ICE and Border Patrol conducted operations there. She said, “The Trump administration has been terrorizing our state and is in our backyards thanks to Home Depot.” Again, who put them at Home Depot? Los Angeles Democrats.
“The city forced this model into place,” said Scott Meyer, who is running for Congress in the 30th Congressional District. “They built it, paid for it, and now they’re attacking the business hosting it.”
Meyer laid the blame on Los Angeles city leaders.
“It’s difficult to find a single idea, policy, or program from the Mayor’s office or City Hall that’s achieved any beneficial results.”
Home Depot is a major employer and taxpayer in Los Angeles, in particular, and California in general, generating billions in economic activity, supporting nearly 300,000 jobs, and $4.6 billion in tax revenue. It seems suicidal to blame Home Depot for a problem caused by LA Democrats. The company also gives back nearly $85 million in charitable investments and over 283,000 volunteer hours.
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