Thirty years ago, Javier became a US citizen, but last year, that status did not protect him from being racially profiled by an ICE agent at the Baldwin Park Home Depot.

“He approached me from behind,” Javier said in Spanish, twisting his body as he reenacted the encounter.

Javier said he wasn’t afraid, not because he believed his citizenship made him untouchable, but because, as a street vendor, he said he had spent years learning how to navigate harassment from law enforcement.

But Javier is more than a street vendor. At the Baldwin Park Home Depot, where immigration raids have taken place, he has become part of an unseen network, like tree roots beneath the pavement, linking one person to another.

At any given hour, Javier moves through that network instinctively. He sells his merchandise, then turns to flag down a work truck for a laborer waiting for a job. When workers climb into the cars of prospective employers, he keeps an eye on the cars they leave behind.

Across Los Angeles, rapid response groups have established a presence at several Home Depot locations to monitor for ICE activity. But Javier said that watch has not extended to Baldwin Park this year.

“It’s a desperate situation right now with ICE and the heat,” Javier said, adding that work has become harder to find, and the workers who do find it are paid less and work in unbearable working environments due to the heat. Javier’s own business has suffered alongside them.

Some days, he sells nothing.

On those days, he quickly packs away his merchandise and climbs into a work truck himself, joining the laborers he usually helps find jobs. He does it despite a knee injury that makes manual labor difficult.