Eight people were arrested Thursday morning in a Border Patrol operation outside a Home Depot store in Westlake, the site of previous raids during a summer of heightened immigration enforcement activity in Los Angeles.
The arrests included people in the country illegally from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security said. Video showed armed agents in tactical gear get out of unmarked vans on a street with several other businesses and street vendors just southeast of the store.
“Three of those arrested had extensive rap sheets for crimes including visa overstay, possession of a controlled substance and grand theft,” the DHS said in a statement. “One individual also had a final order of deportation from an immigration judge. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
Joshua Erazo is a day laborer organizer who connects workers with employers. He said the people who were detained included street vendors and day laborers.
The Border Patrol operation unfolded at the home improvement store on Wilshire Boulevard, where day laborers in search of work regularly gather west of downtown Los Angeles, during months of aggressive enforcement activity in Los Angeles that began in early June.
In June, day laborers were detained by federal agents at the same Home Depot. In August, federal agents showed up in the cargo area of a rental Penske moving truck and took more than a dozen people into custody outside the store.
The location is a few blocks east of MacArthur Park, where the presence of federal agents earlier this summer was met by protests and drew criticism from Mayor Karen Bass.
Other federal operations since early June have been carried out at other Home Depot stores, car washes and various businesses in Southern California.
About 50 demonstrators gathered in Westlake to protest federal agents’ raid at a Home Depot. Macy Jenkins reports for the NBC4 News at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.
White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that the operations will “ramp up” in so-called sanctuary cities across the country, including in Los Angeles.
“You’re going to see a ramp-up of operations in New York,” Homan told reporters at the White House. “You’re going to see a ramp-up of operations continue in LA, Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Homan did not provide details.
Federal officials told NBC Los Angeles that it’s part of its routine operations.
The immigration enforcement operations are part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan, a central promise of his presidential campaign.
Through Aug. 14, more than 59,000 migrants had been taken into ICE detention since the start of President Trump’s second term, according to NBC News, which used ICE data both public and internal as well as data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. About 30% of those in detention had criminal convictions; 25% had pending criminal charges; 45.6% were listed as “other immigration violator;” and 11.6% were fast-tracked for deportation.
The administration has highlighted arrests involving undocumented individuals with violent crime convictions.
Earlier in August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling to maintain a temporary restraining order, granted by a federal judge, over how the federal government conducts immigration enforcement operations in Southern California. The legal battle stemmed from a federal judge’s July 11 ruling that granted the restraining order requested by immigrant advocates in an effort to restrict federal immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California.
Judge Maame E. Frimpong’s order barred the detention of people unless the officer or agent “has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.”
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