Is there any more apt a piece of imagery to depict late-stage capitalism than a Home Depot installing sonic weaponry and then training those irritating sound waves against not only the day laborers it wants to see gone from its parking lot, but also its own customers and employees? This kind of carelessly blunt, scorched-earth move speaks to a corporation that seemingly wants to remove itself from headlines revolving around ICE raids at its stores, but in the course of “deterring” undocumented laborers they will simply generate more headlines by making the experience of shopping at their stores that much more fraught with irritation for literally everyone. How does an attorney for a company like Home Depot not bring up this very issue while an L.A. store is installing a series of noise-emitting machines to pester immigrants, and then proceeds to run those machines 24 hours a day?
The machines, reportedly stationed at L.A.’s Cypress Park Home Depot according to the L.A. Times, emit high-pitched whining and droning, which day laborers who wait for work on the fringes of the parking lot describe as torturous, saying that the sound “penetrates your bones” and continues to ring in their ears for hours after leaving the area, resulting in dizziness, headaches and nausea. A spokesperson for the company claimed that the devices were necessary as a “safety initiative, intended to deter and prevent illegal overnight parking in the area,” and had no connection to “immigrant enforcement,” but those present at the site say that the noise typically runs all day long, making its purpose rather unmistakable.
Immigrant advocates and local lawmakers aren’t buying it, with Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents L.A. Council District 1, telling the Times that the machines are “a deliberate choice by a multibillion-dollar corporation that absolutely knew what it was doing and chose to weaponize sound literally. Devices like these are used as torture against our people.”
This week, L.A.’s local Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit that advocates for day laborers, held a press conference at the Home Depot parking lot, no doubt wanting to call direct attention to the noise-generating machines. And wouldn’t you know it: As soon as camera crews showed up, the noise was turned off, reportedly being turned back on in the hours after cameras departed. This particular Home Depot is a well-known hub for day laborers seeking construction employment, and has been raided numerous times by agents of ICE as a result. According to IDEPSCA, roughly 50 people have been detained in that particular Home Depot parking lot in 2025, suggesting that perhaps the corporation is so intent on separating itself from those headlines that they embraced the nuclear option of irritating literally anyone who would come within earshot of the store. Have they considered irradiating the parking lot as well? Perhaps they could install a moat of burning sulfur in front of the garden department? There’s so many more ways that the Home Depot could be made even more inhospitable.
Anti-loitering speakers have been installed in the parking lot of Home Depot in Cypress Park, following a recent Border Patrol raid. “It’s like a sonic ice pick–just stabbing you,” says audio expert Dustyn Hyatt.
The full story: lataco.com/cypress-park…
By Aisha Wallace-Palomares
— L.A. TACO (@lataco.bsky.social) Dec 17, 2025 at 6:56 PM
“We have been here and remain open through global pandemics, providing services and creating community,” said IDEPSCA’s executive director Maegan Ortiz in a statement to the Times. “We’re not going to let sound machines, gates and intimidation get rid of us. Day laborers are here to stay. IDEPSCA is here to stay. The immigrant community is here to stay.”
In the expected, avowedly cowardly fashion, the statement of the Home Depot spokesman to the Times is as vague and wishy-washy as it could possibly be, saying that the company “has several initiatives we use to keep our stores safe, including human and technology resources,” a sentence that means roughly nothing. Advocates for day laborers urge the company to assert itself against repeated immigration raids, but it seems Home Depot would rather simply roll over and allow members of ICE free rein. Under normal circumstances, one would expect these day laborers to be not exactly formally welcomed by the corporation, but certainly tolerated–the presence of such laborers in the parking lot actually implies a greater degree of sales at the store, given that they’re being hired for construction and home improvement jobs, with materials that may logically be purchased at the store itself. In the current era of illegal immigrant scapegoating, however, it seems that Home Depot is willing to not only lose some sales but also aim “bone penetrating” sound blasts at its own employees and customers if it means they can wash their hands of any contact with undocumented laborers.
As I can only assume they teach on day one of business school: If you can find a way to utilize the same technology the CIA uses against drug lords in compound sieges on your daily customer base, by all means, blow out their eardrums. When the ringing finally stops, they’ll thank you for it.
