Federal immigration agents carried out a deceptive and racially targeted raid Wednesday morning outside a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, using a rented Penske truck to lure and arrest immigrant day laborers. The raid, conducted by Border Patrol, is the latest in a wave of enforcement operations under the Trump administration that appear to openly defy a federal court order restricting racial profiling and indiscriminate immigration arrests.

The truck pulled into the Home Depot parking lot on West 20th Street shortly before 7:00 a.m. A Spanish-speaking decoy posing as an employer offered work to the group of laborers gathered outside. Once several individuals approached, the rear doors of the truck were rolled open and masked agents in tactical gear rushed out, chasing people across the lot. At least sixteen people were arrested. Witnesses reported seeing agents detain both street vendors and day laborers, many of whom were seeking informal day jobs.

This operation, dubbed “Trojan Horse” by Border Patrol leadership, was documented by community observers and volunteers from local mutual aid organizations who have been monitoring enforcement activity. These grassroots defenders were the only people present who took action to protect workers, sound the alarm, and begin tracking the operation in real time. As in previous raids, there was no official city response on site. It was community defense groups—not elected officials, not law enforcement, not legal institutions—who showed up to witness, intervene, and offer immediate support.

Federal officials posted footage of the raid on social media, boasting about the arrests and declaring that immigration enforcement would continue across the region.

The raid occurred just five days after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal injunction prohibiting ICE and Border Patrol from detaining individuals based on appearance, language, location, or type of employment. The temporary restraining order, originally issued in early July, followed a lawsuit from civil rights groups that argued immigration agents were engaging in widespread racial profiling and unlawful detentions. The court agreed that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing a pattern of unconstitutional conduct.

Despite the ruling, the tactics used in the Westlake operation closely matched those outlined in the lawsuit. Agents used Spanish to communicate, targeted a known immigrant job site, and detained individuals based on generalized assumptions about race and immigration status. These actions fall squarely within the scope of what the federal court has forbidden.

Penske issued a public statement saying it had no knowledge of the operation and that transporting people in the cargo area of its vehicles is strictly prohibited. Footage of the raid aired on Fox News, showing agents inside the truck moments before it was launched, further underscoring the premeditated nature of the sting.

The Home Depot location in Westlake has been a regular gathering point for day laborers, and was one of the first sites targeted during the initial June raids that marked the beginning of this federal terror campaign. Since then, more than 500 immigrants and U.S. citizens in many cases, have been detained in the region. At least seventeen people have died in federal custody over the past two months.

Wednesday’s operation also renewed attention on the Home Depot boycott launched by a coalition of advocacy organizations on July 3. The boycott was announced outside a South Los Angeles Home Depot and denounced the company’s history of allowing federal agents to carry out arrests on its property. Organizers pointed to Home Depot’s reliance on immigrant labor while offering no protection to workers targeted by ICE and Border Patrol.

The boycott campaign issued the following five demands:

• Stop the immigration raids now
• Stop the militarized assault on Los Angeles now
• Home Depot must prohibit all federal immigration agencies from accessing its stores and parking lots
• Protect day laborers now
• Justice for impacted families now

Despite the mounting pressure, Home Depot has not issued a public statement regarding enforcement actions on its premises or adopted any policies to restrict access by federal agents or protect the workers who regularly gather outside its stores.

Federal officials have continued to signal that these enforcement actions will persist regardless of court rulings. In public statements following the Westlake raid, senior figures in the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney’s Office portrayed the arrests as part of a broader campaign to reassert federal control over immigration enforcement in the region, raising alarm among legal experts and civil rights groups, who view them as clear indicators that the administration intends to ignore the court’s restrictions.

While city officials have issued general expressions of concern, no local intervention occurred during the raid. The only immediate response came from community members engaged in on-the-ground defense. Mutual aid networks provided real-time updates, documented the operation, and supported workers who escaped detention. These networks have become the sole source of organized protection for immigrant communities as federal agencies escalate their tactics, LAPD openly collaborates with ICE, and public officials remain absent.