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A bill that would have required large retail stores to preserve and provide documentation of immigration enforcement activity occurring on their premises when requested by government officials will no longer be moving forward this session.
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The REPAIR Act of 2026 was introduced by state Sen. Sasha Pérez, D-Alhambra, after talks between day laborer advocates and Home Depot representatives reached a stalemate. Although months of negotiation in the Legislature substantially narrowed the divide between the two sides, the bill failed to secure enough votes to advance out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee Thursday.
“We were willing to take quite literally any amendment,” said Chris Newman, general counsel of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which co-sponsored the bill. “The fact that the bill got killed leaves us all with the sense that we had in the beginning.”
After immigration raids swept through Southern California Home Depot parking lots last summer, NDLON representatives met with Home Depot executives to discuss how they could work together to address the fear that had taken hold among the day laborer community.
According to Newman, the retailer did not seem willing to negotiate in good faith, which is why the organization took the fight to the Capitol.
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NDLON and Pérez worked closely with the California Retailers Association, which represents companies including Home Depot, to address many of the group’s concerns.
While the association remained opposed to the bill in its most recent form because of a few specific provisions. CEO Rachel Michelin said the group did not oppose the broader goal of the legislation and appreciated Pérez’s willingness to work with retailers.
Newman said NDLON “very much assumed it was going to go through,” and found it frustrating that there was no explanation for why the bill was held. But the organization is not giving up the fight, he said, and will absolutely be working on new legislation.
“This time, we truly bent over backward to accommodate their concerns on what was the lowest common denominator legislation,” Newman said. “I think next time we are going to start from a very different place with far more onerous requirements. At every step of the way we continue to gain so much more support among people all throughout California who are outraged by Home Depot’s indifference to the suffering that its stores are causing.”
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