Demonstrators gather at the Ewing Home Depot on Dec. 19, 2025, to protest what they said is the store’s cooperation with federal immigration officials. (Photo by Sophie Nieto-Munoz/New Jersey Monitor)
EWING — Dozens of activists lined up inside The Home Depot in this Mercer County town Friday, cash in one hand and an ice scraper in the other, to protest what they claim is the company’s cooperation with federal immigration agents.
Roughly 50 people bought a $2.97 ice scraper and promptly walked to the other side of the store to return it in an effort to stall the store’s operations. Organizers with ICE Out of New Jersey said the purchase symbolizes that people want to “scrape ICE” out of the Garden State.
Ana Paola Pazmiño, executive director of Resistencia en Accion, said the message is “loud and clear.”
“If ICE doesn’t have a warrant, they should not arrest anyone in stores and in the parking lots. We want Home Depot to do something, to pass a policy, to say something,” she said.
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Similar protests clogging store checkouts have popped up in Los Angeles and New York City to denounce immigration action at Home Depot locations.
A Home Depot spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The retailer has said it does not coordinate with federal immigration agents.
“We aren’t involved in ICE activities, and we aren’t notified when they are going to happen. We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate,” it said in a social media post last month.
For years, day laborers have gathered at hardware stores looking for jobs or to buy materials for work. But these locations have now become hot spots for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest and detain migrants without working papers.
A contractor who was buying building materials was followed out of the Ewing Home Depot on Dec. 7, pulled over, and detained by federal immigration authorities about a block away from the store, said Pazmiño.
A manager at the Ewing Home Depot told protestors on Friday that he wouldn’t kick people out as long as they were buying or returning items and weren’t being disruptive with other customers. He declined to comment further.
Police showed up to the demonstration as protestors urged shoppers to boycott the retailer. Officers eventually urged protestors to leave the property, and, while walking to their cars, the demonstrators sang chants to the tune of “Feliz Navidad.”
“We don’t want no more deportations, we don’t want no more deportations, we don’t want no more deportations in Home Depot parking lots,” they sang.
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