Fact check: How many Home Depot locations have installed security cameras for immigration enforcement purposes?

1. What people are claiming and what the reporting actually shows — clarity on a focused question

The central claim under scrutiny asks for a count: how many Home Depot locations have cameras installed for immigration enforcement purposes? Local articles documenting immigration enforcement actions around Home Depot stores in Los Angeles, Corona and Evanston report raids and detentions but explicitly note Home Depot’s denial of participation and do not report company-installed cameras being used for immigration enforcement. These stories focus on the location of raids and community reaction rather than technical surveillance arrangements, and they make no factual assertion that Home Depot deployed cameras to assist ICE or Border Patrol ^{[1] [5] [2] [3] [6]}. The available local coverage therefore cannot support a numerical count.

2. Investigative reporting identifies private camera networks that law enforcement can access — but it doesn’t translate to a store-by-store tally

A national investigation into the Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) network and private AI camera ecosystems found that private businesses, including Home Depot and Lowe’s, appear among many entities whose cameras can send data into networks accessible to law enforcement. That reporting documents at least eight local agencies directly sharing their Flock networks with U.S. Border Patrol and evidence of “back-door” access to plate data, establishing a model by which private surveillance can be repurposed for immigration enforcement ^[4]. The piece names Home Depot as one of many private entities whose camera feeds feed broader commercial networks, but it does not provide a store-level inventory or confirm that particular Home Depot locations were installed or modified expressly for immigration policing.

3. Reconciling the two tracks of coverage — raids versus surveillance-sharing revelations

Local reporting on ICE activity at Home Depot focuses on the human and legal dynamics of raids and corporate statements that the retailer is not participating in enforcement operations; these reports provide no evidence of a company-directed surveillance-for-enforcement program at specific stores ^{[1] [2] [3]}. In parallel, the surveillance-network reporting documents structural vulnerabilities and sharing agreements that allow Border Patrol and other agencies to query license plates and camera feeds originating from private networks. Taken together, the factual picture is: surveillance networks exist that can include private retail cameras, but there is no verified, public count of Home Depot locations configured or installed solely to support immigration enforcement ^[4].

4. What’s missing from the record — why a precise number is unavailable

The public reporting shows two clear gaps that prevent a definitive numeric answer: first, retailers and private surveillance vendors typically do not publish store-level disclosures about camera configurations or data-sharing agreements, and local reporters covering ICE raids have not uncovered or documented such store-level arrangements in their coverage ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Second, investigative articles that document sharing of ALPR and AI camera data list corporate brands among many participants but stop short of providing a location-by-location audit that would be necessary to produce a count. As a result, there is a documented risk pathway (private cameras → networked data → law enforcement access), but no public audit or reporting that enumerates Home Depot stores used for immigration enforcement ^[4].

5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for verification

The verified fact is that no reputable reporting in the reviewed sources provides a number of Home Depot locations outfitted specifically for immigration enforcement; independent investigations confirm that private camera networks can and do share data with agencies like Border Patrol and name Home Depot among many businesses whose cameras may be part of such ecosystems, but they do not quantify store involvement ^[4]. To establish a defensible count, one would need either a corporate disclosure from Home Depot, procurement or vendor records showing installation and data-sharing terms for individual stores, or a law-enforcement or vendor audit showing which retail cameras were queried or integrated for immigration operations. Without that documentary evidence, any numeric claim would be unsupported by the available reporting ^{[1] [2] [4]}.