‘Scrape ICE out’: Protest at Ewing Home Depot demands company not comply with federal deportation efforts

Activists scattered among customers scrolling the shelves at the Home Depot in Ewing, pretending to shop as minutes ticked toward 10:30 a.m. 

The pack convened at aisle 36 shortly after the designated meeting time. They guised, put on matching black beanies, and hoisted orange signs demanding, “ICE out of Home Depot.” 

“We are going to exercise our right of buying and returning. Is that alright?” Jorge Torres, organizer at National Day Laborer Organizing Network, asked the gaggle of around 50 on Dec. 19. The crowd, surrounded by pipe insulation and dryer vents, confirmed.

Each protester grabbed an ice scraper and strolled in unison toward self-checkout, multiplying the line’s size. They handed out information cards to customers as they waited to purchase the tools before exiting and reentering the store to return them. 

It was a deliberate effort to clog up the flow of business at the supply retailer. The actions mirrored rallies organized by the same group in Monrovia, California, and New York City against what they call Home Depot’s complicity and support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation operation.

“ICE has been abducting undocumented workers in their parking lots across the country. Home Depot has done nothing to talk about this issue,” Torres said in an interview at the event. 

The Trump administration is orchestrating a historic, sweeping deportation effort targeting migrants who entered the country illegally. Federal agents have primed Home Depots as honeypots. Day laborers, many of whom are Latino men who may or may not have documentation, for years have gathered outside the equipment stores seeking work. 

Executive director at Resistencia en Accion New Jersey, Ana Paola Pazmiño, said she has heard of two people being taken from the Ewing Home Depot through her organization’s family separation support hotline. Many protestors referenced a video posted Dec. 7 showing ICE agents stopping a car and detaining a person at the intersection at North Olden Avenue as motivation for their attendance.

The Los Angeles Times reported that a local Home Depot installed noise machines that activists say are intended to deter day laborers from convening. Co-founder Ken Langone is an outspoken supporter of the Trump administration’s policies. 

The company has repeatedly denied claims that it coordinates with ICE. Store assistant manager Chris Tusa declined to comment during the protest.

Police arrived soon after the protest flooded the checkouts. Officers mainly observed before issuing a warning to Torres and other organizers that they should wrap it up after they are done returning the items, as the store has the right to evict the group for trespassing. After some discussion, all parties came to an agreement. 

The Home Depot employees took the wave in stride. Cashiers and attendants processed the purchases and returns of the ice scrapers in under half an hour. 

The protest moved outside after the last product was returned. Activists chanted and sang before dispersing a few minutes later.  

Rocco, a customer who requested to withhold his full name, said he is sympathetic to the protest’s message, but was not sure if it accomplished anything.

“I don’t really understand the protesting inside the store,” he said, noting he avoided the long line when he saw it. “I guess they want to bring attention, more publicity. But then again, you don’t want to inconvenience the customers.”

Pazmiño said the movement will always be “on the side of the customers and the workers,” who are much more likely to feel the heat from the enforcement activity, but recognized the disturbance a protest can cause. The groups hosted a similar rally at an East Windsor Home Depot in July. “It’s part of the process,” she said. 

Deportations in New Jersey

New Jersey is a sanctuary state, meaning it has policies limiting local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement. Former state attorney general Gurbir S. Grewal, in 2019, terminated what are known as 287(g) agreements, which allowed municipal police to work with ICE under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. Yet, ICE arrested over 6,000 people in the Garden State from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15 – the eighth highest count among American states and territories, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. 

The PPI study says that the count is due to a high level of local law enforcement collaboration with federal authorities, despite the state law. Pazmiño agreed and said she’s seen it firsthand.

“Police do collaborate with ICE,” she claimed, describing scenarios when migrants get detained outside courthouses based on information shared from parking tickets and other misdemeanor, municipal-level cases. 

“Trenton Police adheres to the New Jersey Attorney General’s guidelines,” Lieutenant David Ordille said in a phone call response. 

Resistencia en Accion New Jersey has lobbied local, county, and state councils and congresses for the Immigrant Trust Act, which would add protections to personal information and limit public agencies’ ability to collect details related to immigrant status. 

“We have been trying to do as much as we can locally because we feel that it can reciprocate and it could go to the state level,” Pazmiño said. “We’re hoping that it will be passed in the Lame Duck session in January. State lawmakers recently introduced legislation banning ICE agents from wearing masks, per the New Jersey Monitor. 

And on the ice scraper metaphor, Pazmiño said the symbolism is pretty direct. “We want to scrape ice out of our communities,” she said. 

Phineas Hogan is a contributing writer for the Trenton Journal. Hogan will graduate from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University in May 2026.