Controversy Over Noise Machines Targeting Day Laborers Outside Los Angeles Home Depot
Three high-pitch noise-emitting devices were installed outside a Home Depot store in Cypress Park, Los Angeles. The devices, mounted on lamp posts in the parking lot beneath a highway overpass, emit sounds that advocates say cause headaches and nausea among day laborers. At least one worker described the noise as penetrating bones.
The devices were placed on land owned by Caltrans, which critics argue is public property. They were installed just days after the most recent ICE raid at the Cypress Park Home Depot, where approximately 50 detainees have been taken this year. IDEPSCA has called for the removal of the machines and urges Home Depot to publicly oppose ICE raids conducted in store parking lots.
Home Depot declined to comment to The Guardian but told the Los Angeles Times that the store's safety initiatives are in place and that the company neither coordinates with immigration authorities nor receives advance notice of raids. This incident is part of a broader pattern of ICE enforcement actions at Home Depot stores in the region and nationwide, including a January raid in Kern County that sparked protests.
