At Least 4 People ‘Vanished’ by ICE Agents in Concord Home Depot Parking Lot, Advocates Say
Immigrant rights advocates are still trying to find more information about at least four people who have “vanished” after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained them outside a Concord Home Depot.
Brian Ibarra, a coordinator with Concord Immigrant Protections Network, said that unmarked vehicles drove into the Home Depot parking lot early Wednesday morning, which day laborers believed to be federal agents.
Described as wearing patches with ‘ERO,’ the Enforcement and Removal Operations division under ICE, they began detaining individuals at the scene.
Ibarra said the people wearing ICE patches removed up to five people, but the advocates don’t have any other information such as their names or where they are being held.
“They just vanished,” Ibarra said. “As of right now, we don’t know who was taken, but once we do, we plan to offer them resources and any help that we have.”
At a protest outside the Home Depot on Thursday, about three dozen advocates gathered and chanted slogans like “No justice, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here.” They held signs that read “Hands off our neighbors” and “Stop terrorizing our communities! Stop tearing families apart!”
ICE has not responded to KQED’s requests for more information.
Wednesday’s arrests are a continuation of the Trump Administration’s enforcement of mass deportations. Earlier this month, an aide for California State Assemblymember Catherine Stefani was detained by immigration officials in Las Vegas.
“It’s very troubling that whatever agency decided to come here chose Home Depot, where we know that day laborers are out here every single day building community with each other and seeking work,” Ibarra said at a podium flanked by other immigration advocates. “We hope that Home Depot has not and will not aid in any federal immigration raids.”
Advocates passed flyers around to encourage people to call the corporation “The Home Deport” — demanding that it denounce ICE raids on its properties nationwide, declare its stores safe spaces from immigration agents and protect the people who work and shop at its stores every day.
“This is not the first time it has happened in other parts of the country, and we’re not here to stay silent anymore,” said Betty Gabaldon, a manager at East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy. “They came in, and within five minutes, they took four people.”
In a written response to KQED, Home Depot said the company didn’t know that immigration enforcement was going to happen, and it wasn’t involved in the operations.
“We cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots,” it said.
Cristina Guerrero runs the day labor program for Monument Impact, a Bay Area nonprofit organization supporting low-income, immigrant and refugee families.
She said people who are up early every morning waiting at Home Depot for work opportunities are already vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation, even aside from the fear of being sent away without a chance to say goodbye to their families.
“Every day, they have to go out, put themselves at risk, and hope that someone will give them an opportunity to work,” she said. “They are fathers, sons, brothers, neighbors, and members of our community.”
Advocates also spoke about Maureen Wanjiru Ngure, a Concord resident and nurse, who ICE recently detained after going to an appointment in San Francisco.
Her family has confirmed she’s since been deported to Kenya, where she hasn’t lived for two decades, Ibarra said.
United Latino Voices Executive Director Tony Bravo said the arrests at Home Depot are frightening for immigrant families across Contra Costa County.
“It is part of a fear that they have been carrying for a very long time,” Bravo said, noting that immigration arrests, as well as those conducted at Home Depots, have surged across the country.
“Concord Home Depot is no exception,” Bravo said. “People have been taken while looking for work and while attending required immigration appointments.
“Their families are left trying to find out where they are, and when they will see them again, if they will,” he said.
Bravo said the people taken by ICE agents at Home Depot were merely trying to make a living to likely support their families, something that now comes with a sense of dread.
“A child waits for a parent to come home, a family loses income. Neighbors begin to wonder: Is it safe for me to go to work? Is it safe for me to leave my home and never see my family again?” Bravo said. “Is it safe to even visit or go to my immigration appointment?”
Danny Espinoza, director of Lift Up Contra Costa, was one of several activists who called on local government leaders to enact more changes to protect immigrants from federal immigration raids, like ending contracts with Flock, whose license plate readers help federal agents track people across the country.
“What happened yesterday makes one thing painfully clear: Concord’s leaders need to take a stand,” Espinoza said. “The city council needs to say plainly that ICE is not welcome here, and back those words by protections that people can count on.”
While ICE has given local authorities notice before conducting immigration enforcement in Concord, it didn’t for Wednesday, according to Concord Police Lt. Shasta Vanetti.
Rich Oberleitner, a retired high school teacher from Walnut Creek, attended the protest wearing an anti-ICE shirt.
He said immigrants are too important for the United States to be treated like the day laborers were on Wednesday morning, when they were simply trying to work.
“It just seems so very wrong,” he said. “It seems so very Gestapo-ish.”