Home Depot Thrust Into Tricky Spot in LA

One chain has found itself squarely in the crosshairs of the immigration unrest in Los Angeles: Home Depot. As the Los Angeles Times puts it, that chain has been put in "a difficult situation, with its locations serving as a frequent site of raids, potentially turning away customers." What you need to know:

• The start: An initial round of immigration arrests targeted a Home Depot parking lot in the Westlake neighborhood, among other locations, on Friday. The Washington Post reports more than 100 men and women started running after masked agents jumped out of a white van and began handcuffing whomever they could reach. "The hardware store parking lot was empty for the first 24 hours after the raid," it noted.
• Next: CBS News reports that the following day, federal agents "were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount," sparking suspicions another raid would happen there. It didn't, but protesters descended on the location, and the Times reports the store closed. (For more: This Times article delves into the role a local assemblyman's Instagram posts played in what transpired on Saturday.)

• Since then: The Times reports raids occurred early Monday at Home Depot locations in Whittier and Huntington Park; reports of other raids at other locations appeared on social media.
• What the chain says: A rep for Home Depot told the Times on Monday the company had not received any advanced warning of the raids and played no part in them.
• The fire factor: The Times notes immigrants and day laborers have long been a backbone for the region's construction industry, with the need for such workers only amplified by the rebuilding efforts underway in the wake of the Pacific Palisades fire.
• The mayor's view: Fox News reports LA Mayor Karen Bass took issue with the feds' decision to target a Home Depot location: "We had been told that he was gonna go after violent criminals. It wasn't a drug den, it was a Home Depot," Bass said on CNN's The Situation Room on Monday. "It was places where people are working. So what was the point of doing this?"

(More Los Angeles protests stories.)