A group of migrant workers is suing Home Depot, the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and the city of Chicago. They claim that police officers working part-time as security at the store have been harassing and attacking them because of their ethnicity. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, says that these day laborers from Venezuela were mistreated outside a Home Depot store in New City. The workers’ lawyers say that their clients’ civil rights were violated and are asking for money as compensation.
At a news conference outside the Dirksen Federal Building, migrant workers held a sign that said, “We demand work and dignity.” Willian Alberto Gimenez Gonzalez from Venezuela shared his experience, saying, “I was beaten, mistreated, and humiliated just because I am an immigrant trying to help my family. I believe others have faced the same treatment.”
The lawsuit explains that workers have gathered in the Home Depot parking lot for years to find short-term jobs from construction companies and homeowners. However, it claims that after many Venezuelan migrants arrived in fall 2023, Home Depot increased its security by hiring CPD officers for part-time work. Both the Chicago Police Department and Home Depot refused to comment on the lawsuit, and the city of Chicago’s Law Department did not respond.
Five workers, four of whom are Venezuelan, described being harassed, assaulted, and detained. They said off-duty officers in police vests confronted them while they were looking for work near the store’s western entrance. Jamitra Fulleord, a lawyer, said, “This lawsuit shows a troubling history of CPD abuses.”
The lawsuit states that non-Venezuelan workers gather at the southern parking lot entrance, but security only targets Venezuelan workers near the Western Boulevard entrance. The workers said they were handcuffed, often after being pushed to the ground, and taken to a private backroom inside Home Depot. There, they claimed off-duty officers hit and choked them and called them ethnic slurs.
Betuel Castro Camacho from Colombia said the officers didn’t believe he wasn’t Venezuelan and hit him in the stomach four times, even breaking his phone. The lawsuit says the abuse happened from October 2023 to May 2024, and names two Home Depot employees and two CPD officers as responsible.
Castro Camacho recalled being handcuffed, beaten, and insulted in May, with guards saying, “this country was better without Venezuelans.” Four of the five workers, including Castro Camacho, were charged with criminal trespass. They claim that when on-duty officers arrived, they were forced to sign documents they couldn’t read under threat of more violence.
Most of the workers’ charges have been dropped, except for one awaiting a hearing on August 14. The Home Depot in southwest Chicago had similar allegations in 2008 when workers sued the city, Home Depot, and CPD officers for wrongful arrests.
The lawsuit says that these incidents are part of a long history of CPD mistreating day laborers, Black and Latino communities, migrants, and other people of color. The workers want the court to force CPD to change its rules for officers working part-time security. Fulleord stated, “Because of the harassment and abuse, we demand that the city stops letting officers use force against community members while working part-time security.”
The CPD often doesn’t require officers to reveal details about their part-time jobs. In 2017, an investigation found that Chicago has one of the most lenient policies for officers working part-time among the 50 largest local and county law enforcement agencies in the country. The plaintiffs argue that the city and Police Department must better monitor off-duty officers to prevent incidents of excessive force.
