A group of masked Border Patrol agents leapt out of an unmarked commercial truck and arrested 16 people on Wednesday outside a Home Depot store in the Westlake section of Los Angeles, in an operation critics say violates a series of recent court rulings against the Trump administration.
“For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, whose district includes Los Angeles, wrote in a statement on X. “The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”
The raid, which officials later called Operation Trojan Horse, began around 6:45am, according to bystanders.
A yellow Penske box truck reportedly approached day laborers in the parking lot of the store and someone asked for workers in Spanish. As a crowd gathered, the doors to the truck’s trailer flew open and agents jumped out, chasing people through the parking lot.
“This is the worst feeling ever,” a day laborer who identified himself as Caesar told The Los Angeles Times of watching the raid.
Critics said the raid violated a Friday ruling from the federal Ninth Circuit Court, which upheld a temporary restraining order barring Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from carrying out roving immigration raids solely on the basis of people’s perceived ethnicity, language, location, or occupation.
The ruling came after a lower court paused such raids in response to a lawsuit from immigrants and civil rights groups accusing federal agents of racial profiling during their immigration sweeps across the Los Angeles area, making arrests that included a U.S. citizen and a lawfully present day laborer outside a Home Depot.
“Border Patrol at a Home Depot in Los Angeles days after the 9th circuit affirmed a court order that purports to block this exact behavior,” David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, wrote on Bluesky. “They don’t even know who they’re chasing! This is insane. Send them all to jail.”
The Department of Homeland Security believes that the MS-13 gang has a “chokehold” on the area, part of the rationale for such “highly optic immigration raids,” Matt Finn of Fox News, who embedded with agents for the Home Depot operation, reported on X.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s office for comment.
“This morning, Border Patrol conducted a targeted raid, dubbed Trojan Horse, in Los Angeles at a Home Depot that resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua,” the Border Patrol said in a statement to The Independent, which did not comment on questions regarding the legality of the raids.
“Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances,” Penske said in a statement on X. “The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today’s operation and did not authorize this. Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.”
The Border Patrol has raided the store parking lot before, and Wednesday’s operation came as the agency continued to carry out operations across the Los Angeles area.
“Different day, different illegal aliens, same objective,” the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino, commander of the multi-agency Operation At Large, wrote on X, sharing video of agents arresting men outside a car wash. “We’re on a mission here in Los Angeles. And we’re not leaving until we accomplish our goals.”
Los Angeles, which has one of the largest immigrant populations in the country, has been at the center of the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown.
Federal officials sent National Guard troops and Marines to the city over the objection of local and state officials in the face of mass protests against federal raids.
The Border Patrol has made use of rules allowing it to operate within 100 miles of any U.S. border to carry out large-scale raids across Los Angeles, Sacramento, and farm areas in the state’s Central Valley.
