Protests against ICE have been popping up all over America, with people rallying against what they see as years of harassment and targeting of people of color. Usually these demonstrations look familiar: crowds with handmade signs, bullhorns, and chants calling out injustice. But the latest action in California took things in an unexpected and oddly clever direction. Over the weekend, Anti ICE protesters in Monrovia, California marched straight into the aisles of a local Home Depot armed with a very unusual protest tool. Not megaphones. Not banners. Not even loudspeakers blasting speeches. Instead, they grabbed piles of 17 cent ice scrapers. And no, before anyone panics, they were not planning to swing them around like weapons. That would only play into the narrative they are fighting against, giving DHS an excuse to claim they are a threat. Their plan was much more strategic.
The protesters paid for the ice scrapers, walked a few steps, then immediately lined up at the return counter. Over and over. Dozens of them. It was a coordinated “buy in,” a tactic meant to jam up registers, slow down business, and send a message directly where it hurts any major retailer in the flow of sales. And by all accounts, it worked. Registers backed up, lines stalled, and Home Depot staff were suddenly dealing with an avalanche of 17 cent returns.
Videos posted online show the Monrovia group holding signs denouncing ICE as they carried their tiny ice scrapers in long return lines. They chose this particular Home Depot because of ongoing claims that ICE agents have been conducting raids in the company’s parking lots, places long known as gathering spots for day laborers, many of whom are undocumented and fearful of surprise sweeps.
Home Depot has publicly denied working with ICE. A company spokesperson said the retailer is not informed about immigration operations and often learns about them only after they have happened. Still, plenty of people online did not buy that explanation, and many threw their support behind the Monrovia protesters.
“Absolutely brilliant. This is proper activism. Hit their ability to make money,” one user wrote. Others brainstormed ways to make the disruption even more annoying for the store. “Wonder if they could have paid with Amex to cost them more in fees,” one commenter suggested. Another chimed in, “Pay with a dollar and take the rest in change. Return it and get your 17 cents. They will run out of change in no time.”
Of course, not everyone was cheering. Some criticized the Monrovia demonstration as pointless or potentially counterproductive. A few even predicted that Home Depot might respond by tightening its return policies altogether. But love it or hate it, the Monrovia stunt certainly got attention and showed that even a cheap ice scraper can make a surprisingly sharp political statement when placed in the right hands.
