A group of migrant day laborers has sued Home Depot, the Chicago Police Department and the city of Chicago in federal court, alleging that police officers working as security at the store have engaged in racially motivated harassment and assault.
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning, outlines a pattern of alleged violence and arrests targeting Venezuelan day laborers outside a Home Depot store in New City. Represented by attorneys from Raise The Floor Alliance and The People’s Law Office, the plaintiffs allege that Chicago police officers and off-duty Home Depot employees violated their civil rights and are seeking damages.
At a news conference Tuesday morning outside the Dirksen Federal Building, migrant workers held signs reading “We demand work and dignity” as others described alleged abuse.
“I was beaten, abused and humiliated for the simple fact that I was an immigrant and wanted to get ahead in life and help my family,” said Willian Alberto Gimenez Gonzalez from Venezuela. “And I believe that just like what happened to me, it happened to other colleagues.”
The hardware store’s parking lot has long attracted workers looking for short-term jobs with construction companies and homeowners, the lawsuit says. But the plaintiffs allege that it was only after an influx of Venezuelan migrants arrived in the fall of 2023 that the Home Depot at 4555 S. Western Blvd. stepped up security and hired CPD officers looking for second jobs.
The Chicago Police Department declined to comment on the pending litigation. The City of Chicago Law Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Home Depot said in a statement Wednesday that it is investigating the allegations.
“We take allegations of violence very seriously and are investigating this issue,” the statement said. “We believe in respecting all people and do not tolerate violence or discrimination.”
The five plaintiffs, who are day laborers, four of whom are Venezuelan, accuse them in detail in the indictment of intimidation, assault and imprisonment.
They allege they were confronted by off-duty officers wearing vests emblazoned with “POLICE” while looking for work near the west entrance of the Home Depot parking lot.
“This lawsuit reflects a disturbing history of CPD abuses that have coalesced into one scheme,” said Jamitra Fulleord, attorney for Raise the Floor Alliance.
The lawsuit alleges that day laborers of non-Venezuelan origin gathered to seek similar work at the parking lot’s southern entrance along 47th Street. However, security personnel “devoted specific and excessive attention to harassing, displacing, and detaining day laborers identified as Venezuelan seeking work at the parking lot entrance on Western Boulevard.”
The plaintiffs allege they were handcuffed, often after being pushed or punched to the ground, and taken to a private back room in the Home Depot building. There, they allege, the day laborers were beaten and choked by off-duty CPD officers. In most cases, they were insulted with racially motivated slurs.
Betuel Castro Camacho, a Colombian plaintiff, claims that when he told security agents about his ethnicity, they said he was “lying” and that he was actually Venezuelan. He also claims that agents punched him four times in the stomach and broke his phone.
The lawsuit alleges the abuse occurred between October 2023 and May 2024. Two Home Depot employees and two CPD officers are named as suspects in connection with the alleged unlawful arrests.
Castro Camacho alleges that one afternoon in May, staff approached him, handcuffed, beat and verbally insulted him, with the guards telling him that “this country was better without Venezuelans.”
Four of the five plaintiffs, including Castro Camacho, were charged with violations of the law, with Chicago police officers on duty coming to the back room of Home Depot to formally arrest them. Three allege they were asked to sign documents in English that they could not read, and claim they agreed to do so out of fear of further violence or legal repercussions.
Of the employees charged with criminal trespass, all but one have had their cases formally dismissed by a court. The remaining plaintiff is awaiting a hearing on August 14.
The Home Depot in southwest Chicago, which is named in the lawsuit, was the target of a similar series allegations in 2008when the Chicago Day Laborer Committee sued the city of Chicago, Home Depot, and individual CPD officers for alleged wrongful arrests.
“The harm Plaintiffs have suffered at the hands of the Chicago Police Department and Home Depot continues a long history of abuses by the CPD against day laborers, Black and Latino communities, immigrants, and other people of color,” the lawsuit says.
Plaintiffs are asking the court to issue an order requiring CPD to revise its policies regarding outside employment for off-duty officers.
“Because of the harassment, physical and emotional abuse, and displacement that day laborers experience, we demand that the City of Chicago end the practice of allowing its officers to work as security guards at night and use force against community members,” Fulleord said.
At CPD it is often not necessary for officers reveal the details of their “side hustle” or secondary employment. In 2017, a Chicago Reporter and CBS 2 investigation found that of the 50 largest local and state law enforcement agencies in the country, Chicago was one of the most benevolent policy for officers who work part-time.
While working as security guards at businesses like Home Depot, off-duty officers can carry guns and handcuffs, the lawsuit alleges. The plaintiffs argue that the city and the police department need to increase their oversight of off-duty officers to prevent excessive force incidents like the ones they describe in their allegations.
