As the sun set over the desert, community organizers handed small electronic candles to a crowd of over 100 strong, marching west on Thomas Road in central Phoenix. They were part of a vigil that marched on Saturday to protest ICE raids that had occurred at Home Depot. The light illuminated the crowd as they traveled to Central Avenue, a 5-mile trip from the Home Depot lot to the Phoenix field office building.
Demonstrators carried signs saying that ICE is killing us, with each sign carrier a photo of someone ICE killed during an altercation. This year has been the deadliest year for ice since 2005. Several other signs memorialized Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdes, a 52-year-old Gualtimolon man who was fleeing an ICE raid at a Home Depot when he was struck by a vehicle and killed. He came ot this country for a better life, and he was sent back to Guatemala dead. Organizers charge that Valdes’ death shows the unattended of an immigration campaign to target people looking for work outside Home Depot locations across the country. There was no statement by Home Depot indicating that they have continued to allow ice raids in their stores and parking lots, so we are here to ask people to join us.
This controversy is still unfolding against the backdrop of raids and National Guard deployments to cities across the country. The march and procession in Phoenix was just one of the demonstrations that took place on Dia de los Muertos, which also followed a recent ICE-involved shooting that happened in Phoenix, Arizona, where ICE officers fired at a fleeing Honduran immigrant named Jose Garcia Sorto, begging near the Home Depot on November 29th, 202. Protesters of the ICE raids in Home Depot started chanting the words I se puede” and “immigrant rights are human rights.
Kay Newkirk, an activist who organized the entire demonstration, took up a microphone at the protest and said I ain’t going to let nobody turn around referencing how ICE is turning immigrants away. Newmirk thought about his father when he marched. His father was a construction worker who dealt with a lot of mistreatment.
Newark also stated that calling on them not to be bystanders and not be complacent with the illegal deportations made by the Donald Trump administration, and without violating basic human rights, it’s not undocumented immigrants being prosecuted, it’s also victims, green card holders, and even American citizens. The march reached its destination, the Phoenix Ice Field Office, and concluded with a celebration of Dia de los Muertos. George Lane, a spokesperson for Home Depot, denied ever allowing ICE agents into the parking lot to arrest undocumented immigrants. He later stated that we weren’t notified that immigration activities would happen at Home Depot, and we aren’t involved in any operation.
Sources:
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2025/11/06/controversial-home-depot-raids/
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/listening-to-day-laborers-amid-immigration-enforcement-fears
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/19/nx-s1-5504124/home-depot-earnings-immigration-raids-day-laborers
