Migrant day laborers allege off-duty Chicago police officers targeted, illegally detained and beat them while they sought work outside a Southwest Side Home Depot.
The allegations are detailed in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of five Venezuelan and Colombian laborers and Latino Union of Chicago. The suit names two Chicago police officers who work second jobs as security guards for the home-improvement store. Defendants also include two named Home Depot employees, several unnamed employees and officers, the city of Chicago, Chicago Police Department and Home Depot.
The laborers, while soliciting for jobs from homeowners and contractors outside the store, allege they were choked, punched, slapped and thrown to the ground after they were handcuffed and taken inside the Home Depot at 4555 S. Western Blvd.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by Raise The Floor Alliance and The People's Law Office, was announced Tuesday morning outside the Dirksen Federal Building in the Loop.
"We seek justice for those who have been exploited and mistreated while trying to earn an honest living," Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, executive director of Latino Union of Chicago, told reporters.
"We are coming forward to demand compensation for damages, protection for seeking work and accountability from those who have perpetrated this violence."
Willian Gimenez, one of the laborers in the suit, on Tuesday described how he was treated while seeking work outside the Home Depot in October 2023.
"I was beaten, I was humiliated and I was accosted just for being an immigrant wanting to do more and progress with my life and be able to find work and income to support my family," Gimenez said in Spanish.
A CPD spokesperson said the department does not comment on ongoing litigation. Home Depot also declined for the same reason. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability did not immediately reply to questions about whether the oversight body is investigating the allegations. Mayor Brandon Johnson's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In addition to seeking an unspecified dollar amount, the lawsuit also calls for CPD to end its moonlighting program that allows officers to have second jobs in private security. It also wants more protections for day laborers seeking work.
The migrants, ages 26 to 45 years old and from Venezuela and Colombia, allege they also endured xenophobic and racial insults from the officers, according to the suit. The alleged incidents happened between October 2023 and May 2024.
"The injuries plaintiffs and other day laborers at Home Depot have suffered are not new," said Jamitra Fulleord, an attorney with Raise The Floor Alliance. "This lawsuit reflects a disturbing history of CPD abuses that have coalesced into one scheme by the plaintiffs."
The complaint says CPD and Home Depot violated the migrants' constitutional rights against excessive force, unlawful search and seizure and detention. It also accuses officers and Home Depot employees of conspiring to deprive them of their rights and make "bogus" trespassing arrests.
"Chicago has always relied on day laborers and has been shaped by them," Alvelo-Rivera said. "The city of Chicago is the greatest city in the world because of its working people. Day laborers have built, painted, cleaned and beautified our streets and homes."
