Penske Truck Sting Still Haunts Westlake Home Depot A Year Later

Nearly a year after federal agents rolled up in a Penske rental truck and detained day laborers outside the Home Depot in Westlake, the neighborhood is still feeling the shock. Regular pickup spots in the store’s parking lot have thinned to a fraction of their former crowds, and families say their paychecks wobble from week to week. "Money doesn’t stretch like it used to," said Rose Garcia, who lives in the neighborhood.

According to NBC Los Angeles, U.S. Customs and Border Protection carried out "Operation Trojan Horse" on Aug. 6, 2025, when agents in a Penske truck approached day laborers outside the Wilshire Boulevard Home Depot and detained 16 people. The Department of Homeland Security said the arrestees were from Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Marco Garnica told NBC Los Angeles that "They opened the doors, came out running and started rushing toward the people," and said agents grabbed men without asking about citizenship or showing warrants. Other workers, like gardener Alexander Cordova, say they still go to the lot for work but do so cautiously, watching every unfamiliar vehicle a little more closely than before.

Community response

Local advocates and unions quickly organized rallies and a "community stoppage" after the arrests, urging boycotts of retailers and staging marches to MacArthur Park. Reporting from Hoodline documented a sharp drop in day-laborers showing up at the Wilshire pickup site and described nonprofits stepping in with emergency aid. Residents say the loss of routine work has only deepened economic strain across Westlake, turning what used to be a predictable daily hustle into a gamble.

Legal fallout

Civil-rights lawyers filed a class-action suit challenging the raids and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that limited indiscriminate "roving" stops in the Central District of California, a litigation timeline tracked by Just Security. Journalists who were struck with projectiles at protests also sued. Courts have at times restricted DHS crowd-control tactics while appeals and further hearings continue, per the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Why this matters now

Local reporting revisiting the scene this week shows the enforcement operation’s effects are not just about the arrests that day. They are about lasting shifts in how people make a living and whether they feel safe looking for work in public spaces. For many Westlake residents the decision to keep coming to pickup sites is driven by bills and basic needs. For others, the risk now outweighs the need.

Mayor Karen Bass and other city officials publicly condemned the tactics and said the city was gathering information and weighing legal options, while advocates argue that restoring trust and stable work will require sustained protections and outreach. Community groups continue to push for stronger legal safeguards and more resources for affected families, according to local reporting by Hoodline, which described the raid as sparking legal debate and local outcry.