It’s a chilly Saturday morning in Monrovia, California, but the air outside the local Home Depot is tense and electric. Last weekend, a crowd of protesters shuffled into the store, each clutching a $0.17 ice scraper. They bought them one by one, then queued up again to return the tiny tools. The process repeated, clogging the checkout lines so thoroughly that management was forced to temporarily close the store. The protest was perfectly legal, but its message was anything but subtle: Americans are angry, and they’re aiming their frustration squarely at companies seen as complicit in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
This scene is just one example of a growing consumer revolt that’s sweeping the nation as of late November 2025. According to The Bulwark and other outlets, activists are targeting the reputations—and bottom lines—of major corporations like Home Depot, AT&T, Amazon, and Hendrick Motorsports for their cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). These companies, critics say, have enabled or profited from policies that have torn families apart and sparked outrage across the political spectrum.
The anger is not abstract. At the very same Monrovia Home Depot that became the site of last weekend’s protest, tragedy struck earlier this year. Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdés, a 52-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, died on a nearby freeway after being struck by an SUV while fleeing an ICE raid. According to The Bulwark, the store’s parking lot had become a familiar setting for aggressive federal enforcement actions, with day laborers—many of whom are simply seeking work—ambushed by masked agents.
Home Depot’s role as a staging ground for these raids has made it a lightning rod for criticism. The company’s executives met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and local activists in recent weeks to discuss their involvement, but those present described the meeting as “unproductive.” As coverage of the ice scraper protest blanketed local news in Los Angeles and even earned a segment on Rachel Maddow’s show for MS NOW, the message from activists was clear: companies that cooperate with ICE can expect to see Americans respond with the power of their wallets.
Chris Newman, general counsel for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), which organized the Monrovia protest, told The Bulwark, “People are becoming more emboldened to cross Trump as his power wanes. The shared goal of the corporate overlords and ICE is to make people feel powerless, and these actions are a way of resisting that sense of powerlessness.” Protesters carried orange and white signs reading “ICE OUT OF THE HOME DEPOT,” underscoring their demand that the company take a stand against federal enforcement actions on its property.
But Home Depot is far from alone. This month, a new campaign launched against AT&T, coordinated by People’s Action—a coalition of forty organizations across twenty-nine states with a long history of organizing such initiatives. Protesters gathered outside roughly twenty AT&T stores in the greater Chicago area, urging customers to avoid upgrades, new contracts, or extra holiday spending on AT&T products. Their gripe? AT&T’s extensive contracts with DHS and ICE.
The details are striking: AT&T secured a $146 million, ten-year contract with DHS last fall to provide “mission-critical communications services” supporting national security and emergency preparedness. More recently, ICE awarded AT&T an $11 million contract for data analytics and support services, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inked a $14 million deal for network services. These contracts were not all signed under the Trump administration, but activists argue that AT&T’s technology and data have become integral to federal immigration enforcement efforts.
There’s even speculation—though not confirmed by AT&T—that the company’s services may have played a role in the dramatic 1 a.m. raid at the 7500 South Shore Drive residential building in Chicago, where multiple agencies descended from different directions, including agents rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter. No criminal charges resulted from the raid, but the spectacle left a lasting impression. AT&T did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Bulwark about its involvement.
Amazon, too, has found itself in the crosshairs of activist campaigns. According to a #NoTechforICE report cited by The Bulwark, Amazon and its affiliates—including Whole Foods—provide cloud storage services that help DHS manage a massive database for immigration case management and biometric data. This database reportedly contains information on 230 million unique identities, including fingerprints, facial records, and iris scans. Critics argue that Amazon’s technology enables ICE to expand its reach and circumvent local protections for immigrant communities.
Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports, a name more often associated with NASCAR than immigration policy, is facing its own backlash. This summer, ICE approved a $2.2 million no-bid contract for twenty-five Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs from the company. The Charlotte Observer and Zeteo reported that Democratic Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) have written a letter to the government agency questioning whether Hendrick Motorsports received favorable treatment due to owner Joseph “Rick” Hendrick III’s status as a prominent GOP donor. The letter has fueled calls for a boycott of the company, adding yet another corporate giant to the growing list of targets.
These protests and boycotts are not isolated incidents—they’re part of a broader movement that’s gaining steam as the Trump administration’s grip appears to be loosening. The Bulwark notes that after a series of political setbacks for Trump, including poor results in recent off-year elections and internal GOP dissent over his Ukraine peace plan, activists sense an opportunity to push back more forcefully. “I don’t know if we’ve reached a turning point around fear of Trump,” Unai Montes-Irueste of People’s Action told The Bulwark, “but it’s a good sign we’re starting to pick fights instead of reacting to things that just happened.”
History offers some precedent for this kind of consumer activism. Progressive groups have long used boycotts and targeted campaigns to pressure businesses into changing their behavior, sometimes with notable success. As The Bulwark points out, even Disney and Jimmy Kimmel have felt the sting of public backlash during the current administration. For many corporations, extended periods of bad press and disrupted retail operations are a nightmare scenario—one that activists hope will force change where quiet negotiations have failed.
As federal agents continue to gather outside places like 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan—where migrants detained during ICE raids are processed—the pressure on corporate America shows no sign of letting up. The consumer revolt against companies aiding ICE’s immigration enforcement is a story still unfolding, but one thing is clear: the nation’s biggest brands are learning that in today’s political climate, silence and complicity can be costly.
The coming months will test whether these companies can weather the storm or whether the power of protest—and the American consumer—will force them to rethink their partnerships with the federal government. For now, the checkout lines at Home Depot may be moving slowly, but the pace of change in the national conversation around immigration and corporate responsibility is only picking up speed.