Protesters Demand Home Depot Protect Immigrant Workers in Massachusetts, California

Protesters gathered at Home Depot stores in Pittsfield, Greenfield and Monrovia on Feb. 19, 2026 in actions organizers called “ICE out of Home Depot,” demanding the company adopt protections for immigrant and day-labor workers. The Pittsfield demonstration drew roughly 40–50 people at the Hubbard Avenue store, Greenfield organizers counted about a dozen at the Mohawk Trail location, and leaders said a near-100-person action took place in Monrovia, California.

In Pittsfield a coalition including Stand Up Berkshires leader Robin O’Herin, Indivisible Berkshires and I-90 Berkshire Visibility Brigade head Jonathan Perloe staged an ice-themed buy-and-return action and walked into the Hubbard Avenue store. Organizers purchased ice scrapers and de-icers then returned them later the same afternoon as a symbolic disruption; management asked protesters to leave about 10 minutes after they entered the store. Jonathan Perloe framed the demand in corporate-values terms: “We looked at Home Depot's values: Take care and taking care of our people, doing the right thing, respect for all people. Home Depot is not living its values when it doesn't say anything about essentially, federal secret police coming in and scooping up people regardless of their immigration status.”

At the Greenfield Home Depot protesters led by organizer Patricia Tierney and participant Molly Cantor gathered “just before 2 p.m. on Tuesday” as part of a coordinated Free America Walkout. Roughly a dozen people staged a stand-in at the entrance, walked through the store to the exit, then delivered a written letter addressed to Ted Decker, president and CEO of The Home Depot, and Jared Pare, manager of the Greenfield store. The letter’s requests included stopping assistance to ICE in parking-lot raids, publicly opposing the use of store lots as staging grounds for immigration enforcement and providing legal and family support to employees detained by ICE. Tierney said interactions with staff outside the store were “very positive,” and Home Depot Assistant Manager Victor Curleo declined to comment when asked about the protest.

In Southern California organizers with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network staged larger buy-in actions that leaders described as both symbolic and disruptive. Organizers said protesters purchased cheap ice scrapers then returned them to clog customer service lines; one account cited a 17-cent scraper price while another described the item as under a dollar. Palmira Figueroa, communications director for the organizing network, said, “We want to scrape ICE from our communities,” and called the ice-scraper tactic symbolic. National organizers said the Monrovia buy-in stalled store operations for nearly an hour and prompted a temporary closure.

Home Depot’s publicly reported position, relayed by a company spokesperson, is that stores are not told in advance about any raids and that stores are required to follow all federal and local laws. Locally, store managers in Pittsfield and Greenfield asked protesters to leave the premises, and organizers said they left a written list of demands for corporate leadership with the intention that the letter be delivered to Ted Decker.

Organizers across the three states framed the Feb. 19 actions as nonviolent, targeted pressure aimed at changing corporate practice: create employee-only areas enforceable by warrant, issue statements opposing parking-lot staging by enforcement, and provide legal aid to detained employees. National leaders characterized Home Depot as central to enforcement activity; Pablo Alvarado, a national organizer, said, “Whether the corporation wants to admit it or not, Home Depot has become ground zero for this cruel, vicious immigration enforcement that’s taking place in our country.”