Day laborer hubs outside Home Depots in the New York City metropolitan area have become hotspots for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, according to witnesses and immigrant advocates.

ICE agents took as many as a dozen men into custody at day laborer hubs near Home Depots in the area in recent weeks, according to immigrant advocates and jobseekers who said they witnessed the arrests. The detained include four men picked up near the New Rochelle Home Depot on June 3, and at least seven picked up outside Home Depots on Long Island, in Hempstead and Freeport, on June 3 and 5.

Spokespeople for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to requests for comment.

The local ICE raids come amid reports of ICE targeting day laborer hubs at Home Depots across the country. One such ICE raid at a Home Depot in the largely Hispanic town of Paramount in Los Angeles County sparked protests that have continued for days and were met with National Guard troops and Marines sent by President Donald Trump.

ICE officers across the country have been under pressure to ramp up immigration arrests — to 3,000 per day — as the Trump administration seeks to carry out what the White House has promised will be the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. In early June, ICE averaged over 1,300 arrests per day, according to CBS News. The daily average was 660 arrests during Mr. Trump's first 100 days

The Trump administration last week said it would pause ICE raids of agricultural sites, restaurants and hotels, citing economic harm to those industries. But it offered no such concession to the construction industry, which also hires unauthorized immigrants in large numbers.

On Monday, in the aftermath of Saturday protests across the country against ICE enforcement and other Trump policies, the president in a social media post directed ICE to conduct more arrests and deportations in large Democrat-led cities, including New York City.

New York City-based day laborer advocates, including at Queens-based New Immigrant Community Empowerment and the Brooklyn-based Workers Justice Project, say they’re unaware of any ICE arrests at day laborer hubs within city limits.

On June 3, ICE agents arrested three men at the Home Depot on Freeport, Long Island, according to day laborers interviewed at the site.

The same morning, north of New York City at the Home Depot in New Rochelle, in Westchester County, ICE arrested four men, according to Jackie Agudelo, executive director of the United Community Center of Westchester, a local nonprofit assisting day laborers.

Nadia Molina, an organizer with the advocacy group the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which has an office in Nassau County, said she spoke with job-seekers outside the Home Depot in Hempstead who said as many as five men were arrested at that location on June 5.

“The arrests at Home Depot … they send a message of terror,” Molina said. “These are workers who are just looking for a job and to make it so they can pay rent.”

Jose Pereira, 64, a day laborer who said he witnessed the arrests at the Freeport Home Depot, said, “If supposedly they’re looking for criminals … I wouldn’t search where there’s a bunch of people looking for work.”

Workers at both the Hempstead and Freeport Home Depots said the ICE raids had led to a drop in day laborers frequenting the sites.

Both sites usually draw 80 to 100 day laborers throughout the day, with most coming in the morning, according to men interviewed at the site and Miguel Alas, an organizer with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

But around 8 a.m. on a recent weekday morning, Gothamist observed only a fraction of that number of job-seekers — about 20 day laborers at the Hempstead Home Depot and five at the Freeport Home Depot.

Workers at the Hempstead Home Depot said men used to run up to the vehicles of potential employers eagerly seeking work. Since the ICE raid on June 3, workers say, they are more cautious, and will wait to see if they recognize the drivers passing by.

“No one comes here,” said Miguel Garcia, 50, a day laborer at the Freeport Home Depot from El Salvador. “The people live in fear.”

Day laborers at both the Freeport and Hempstead Home Depots described a similar scene of federal officers approaching and questioning men waiting for work.

At the Freeport Home Depot, Pereira said around 8:30 a.m. on June 5, a group of 15 cars surrounded the sidewalk where day laborers congregate, and men in ICE apparel asked the day laborers for identification. Those who couldn’t provide identification with their name and photo were arrested, according to Garcia.

At the Hempstead Home Depot, a 55-year-old day laborer named Francisco, from El Salvador, said that around 12:30 p.m., men in Homeland Security Investigations apparel stationed cars around the area of the parking lot where day laborers congregate, so no one there could easily leave.

The agents asked the job-seekers for identification, and input their information into a computer, Francisco said. He asked not to publicly share his last name for fear of retaliation from the federal government due to his lack of immigration status.

Francisco said he gave his driver’s license to an HSI agent, who eventually allowed him to leave.

Agudelo said she arrived at the New Rochelle Home Depot around 8:30 a.m. on June 3, and she saw three uniformed ICE and FBI agents. From her conversation with workers, she said, she learned ICE agents had arrested four men altogether, from Guatemala, Senegal and Nicaragua. The wife of the man from Nicaragua reached out to Agudelo for assistance, and Agudelo said she recommended the woman contact a local legal nonprofit.

Several immigrants looking for work at Home Depot locations in New York City told Gothamist last week that they hadn’t seen any immigration agents making arrests, but they feared they soon might.

On a recent day, Diego Chimbo huddled under an umbrella outside the Home Depot in East Elmhurst. He said he wanted to stay in New York to keep providing for his children and parents in Ecuador.

“The truth is that I am afraid,” he said in Spanish. “I am very afraid.”

Chimbo said he came to New York eight years ago in search of better work opportunities and an escape from high levels of crime.

He said he sends extra income back home, where his 9-year-old daughter is already anticipating his possible return. A few days ago, Chimbo said, his daughter told him she had good news.

“‘Did you know that ICE is taking people in New York? So, very soon I’ll see you here,’” Chimbo recalled his daughter saying on the phone in Spanish.

Samantha Max contributed reporting.