‘American Nightmare’: Day Laborers Share Experience Of Anti-ICE Protests At Paramount Home Depot

PARAMOUNT, CA — On any given day, the Home Depot on Alondra Boulevard in Paramount is sprawling with dozens of undocumented workers hoping to get hired for laborious work — often the only type of work they can find.

But on Monday, just two days after protesters took to the streets in Paramount to protest ICE’s presence, only a handful of workers returned to the same lot.

“Everyone’s scared,” 54-year-old Jose Luis Valencia, a day laborer from Mexico, told Patch in Spanish Monday outside the Paramount Home Depot. “But I’m not scared. I’m only scared of God.”

Valencia and several day laborers were at the Paramount Home Depot on Saturday afternoon when the protest against ICE agents broke out. Federal agents had set up a staging area near the Home Depot that afternoon, but Paramount officials said ICE was not there to conduct raids. They were there because of a homeland security office that has been located in the city since 2007.

Tensions were already high after a series of immigration sweeps in Los Angeles County the day before, where hundreds were arrested. In Paramount, demonstrators sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, federal agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Police said dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

Valencia, 50-year-old Abrahán Sánchez, and 39-year-old Jose Alvarez rushed to see what the commotion was. They saw as protesters face off with authorities, chasing them away from the city. Sánchez, an undocumented immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, said he joined the march against the ICE agents, standing on the frontline. When the tear gas and rubber bullets were fired, they went home.

RELATED: It Was Mostly A Peaceful Protest, Then Came The Tear Gas And Rubber Bullets

The three men said they were in awe and proud of how the community came together to fight for the rights of undocumented immigrants. Valencia said he wished it hadn’t erupted into chaos and violence.

“They were united, but it turned into vandalism and that created more conflict,” Valencia said.

Valencia, Sánchez and Alvarez share similar stories — all three reluctantly left their home country in hopes of a better life and opportunity in the United States.

Valencia arrived in the United States nearly 30 years ago. Sánchez paid $800 more than 25 years ago for a coyote — someone who smuggles people into the United States illegally — to get him across the border from Mexico. Alvarez, who just arrived three years ago from Nicaragua, paid $2,000 to be smuggled in.

Although they miss home, they say they can’t return because they've already sacrificed and invested too much in search of the American Dream — the belief that anyone can make it in this country through hard work and determination, regardless of where they’re from.

Except, that American Dream has turned into an “American nightmare” since Trump took office again, Sánchez said.

Valencia, Sánchez and Alvarez arrive at the Home Depot parking lot each morning at 6 a.m. Occasionally, someone will arrive offering them plumbing, electrician or yard work, they said. If they’re lucky, they take home $60.

“Back in the day there were a lot of opportunities,” Sánchez said. “Now, at times, I don’t even have enough money for rent or food.”

Often, the men said, they have to dip into their savings from years ago to make ends meet. Alvarez said he suffered an injury working in December, and, with no insurance, he had to pay his medical bills out of pocket, impacting the money he could send home to his family.

“Everything’s gone downhill. It’s been difficult to get back up with the current situation we’re living through," Alvarez said. “I still wake up every morning to go look for work and get that ‘daily bread.’ We have to keep going. If (ICE) gets me, then they get me, and I go back to my country. I did what I could here.”

His voice cracking and fighting back tears, Valencia said it hurts to be misrepresented by Trump’s rhetoric that paints a bad picture of the immigrant experience. For every person with a criminal background that Trump’s administration manages to deport, it seems that 50 other “innocent” immigrants are also detained and processed, Valencia said.

“I pay taxes like everyone else. We’re not criminals,” Valencia said. “The majority (of immigrants) come here to work.”

“They call us invaders, but they're the invaders. These lands used to belong to Mexico, and they never stopped belonging to Mexico because the majority living here are Mexicans.”