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Home Depot in LA installs noise machines that ‘penetrate bones’ to deter day laborers
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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On the other hand, the city put up signs years ago near the HD nearest me to point out where the day labor gathering place is, as well as some car barriers to keep them from getting hit. As far as I can tell it’s worked out pretty well. Next time I need to move more stuff than my back will allow I’m planning on hiring someone.
Hanging around in a parking lot hoping to get work sounds strange. Is this a common thing? Does it have to do with working off the books or working without work permit?
It is. If you go to Home Depot in the morning you'll see contractors picking up Hispanic guys to hire for the day
100% off the books
The same contractors are MAGA and support ICE.
Slavers loved the slave patrol too
Easy to keep people in line when you can just whistle and away they go
A lot of temp agencies in my area have day laborers on the books, which means they're supposed to use the verification database, in theory.
It's quite common for native - born and immigrants to gather in parking lots where construction, hotel and other service industry supervisors may need an extra employee or crew due to regular hire unforseen absences, or rush projects. For example, a smoker in a non-smoking unit, hotel deep cleaning, or a construction project that won't get paid because the deadline is too close for the regular crew to finish on time. Also ordinary citizens who may need help moving, or a home repair they thought they could manage on their own but can't.
I just foresee this irritating customers, and without forethought.
We are talking about a shithole country so it may well be normal.
Both and more. There are very few places you can walk into and get a job these days. Many Mexican immigrants come to America and try to work trades jobs to get by because it’s easier than a traditional 9-5 job with citizenship/visa requirements.
Are they allowed to be hired or does tht happen off-the-books illegally? Undeclared work around construction is not rare where I'm from but the scale of it just surprises me, that you'd just wait around in a parking lot for work.
There are almost no trades certifiers in the US.
I live in San Diego, California. where I can literally see the city of Tijuana, Mexico.
Day laborers would traditionally gather near the entrance of Home Depot or Lowes just beyond their property lines early everyday.
They will then solicit themselves to customers by offering to do either construction, landscaping, painting, moving or other physical labor jobs for cash paid work of either a half day or a full day.
They will not do anything less than 4 hours of work because it may result in them not getting another job for the rest of the day. They will often ask for a small amount upfront or at a minimum: a verbal agreement on a total amount to be paid in cash when completed.
They work hard and do a good job. Now however, they do not congregate in large groups anymore and many are just getting jobs being paid under the table doing gardening or whatever. Anything to stay below ICE's radar.
I'm guessing most of these are people who have come in illegally or otherwise don't have work permits? It makes more sense that they're hired for simpler handyman stuff, I was imagining some bigger construction projects where at least where I live they can be pretty strict about checking the paperwork. Off-the-books handyman stuff is somewhat common, but theyre hired through different ways. "I know a guy", some websites or Facebook groups. Usually it is local or maybe Estonian people who do it because they want to avoid taxes.
They do not have any documents, permits or reasonable identification most of the time. They are truly illegal immigrants who came to the USA illegally using what we call Coyotes (Human smugglers) who move humans to the US for a paid fee (very similar to what immigrants coming by boat to the shores of the EU or UK go through in a way).
They send some or all of their earnings back to Mexico btw. Sometimes the money goes to a wife and kids there, other times it's for an ailing parent/sibling. They're truly taking a risk to better their lives.
LA county is more populated than most entire states. It’s a numbers game. My husband hired a Home Depot laborer to tile the entire house (before we met) for like 1K. That kind of labor on the books would cost probably 5x that because of overhead.
I don’t see how it’s possible to police under the table work. Many labor deals fly under the radar because of that fact.
Now, the downside to hiring cheap labor is that there’s absolutely no recourse should the worker fuck up your house or project. I’d personally never hire someone to do an under the table job for something important like a roof or electrical work.
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So they're just assaulting all the customers who are trying to walk into the store then?
And the employees, too.
Hell, report it to CalOSHA
You can email Home Depot by contacting them at: hdcares@homedepot.com
Let them know how you feel about these dangerous noise machines.
Home Depot is based in Georgia and the founder was fully supportive of republicans. Don’t be surprised when the store espouses his values.
Boycott Home Depot. The only language these *giant corporations understand is money.
Or maybey take a stroll through the store, very slowly, so you dont accudently knock something off the shelf.
Definately dont purchase and return things.
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(4 replies)
Do they not realize this will also drive away their own customers?
The last time I went they had close up cameras at the cash registers so I’m already driven away.
Home Depot doesn’t give a fuck about their customers
The libs will be owned, damn the consequences!
No shit imagine heading to Home Depot and suddenly getting sick. Imagine We can sue the fuck out of them?
Listen to the video. I'd never be back if I didn't already hate the place. It's kinda a shitty store already.
Dude that site is toxic with ads not watching freaking ads.
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I don’t think this is legal
gestures to all of the federal government
But... what about the autopen
ICE raids in store parking lots. Immigration enforcement agents have repeatedly targeted the Cypress Park location
So, is Home Depot inadvertently helping immigrants? 🤔
JFC I listened to the video for 0.25 seconds and that was enough.
I bet that has at least $100 worth of copper in it.
It's held on there with zip ties. Why, you could probably find something to deal with that right at home Depot.
And then return it after you're done...
Cities should all operate publicly-run day labor programs to protect workers from shit like this and from contractors who would steal their wages or put them in unsafe conditions
Also boycott Home Depot
Cities should operate unionized day labour programs so nothing gets done unless people are taken care of.
Cities should all operate publicly-run day labor programs to protect workers from shit like this and from contractors who would steal their wages or put them in unsafe conditions
Sorry, in 2026, the best we can do is to allow you to legally sell yourself into indentured servitude for a period of time. Yup, that's it. We're bringing back literal peonage. Also we're bringing back debt slavery for student loans. /sigh
I guess they'll start hanging around outside of Lowe's and when I have a project that requires day-laborers that's who'll get my money for materials.
I did not have hitting the brown note in the parking lot trying to buy a hammer on my 2025 bingo card
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