By Arriana McLymore and Ross Kerber
NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A group of Home Depot investors is asking the company to review its partnership with surveillance firm Flock Safety and state how its data is used and shared with law enforcement, following reports by an independent media outlet that the vendor's data has been used in Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations.
Home Depot locations have become hotbeds for ICE arrests, after U.S. Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller said the agency should target the home improvement chain, where migrant day laborers are known to gather.
Investors in several companies are increasingly seeking answers to how U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies and enforcement are affecting company operations and reputation.
Zevin Asset Management, a sustainability-minded investor that owns more than $7 million in Home Depot stock, is leading a shareholder proposal with 17 co-filers asking Home Depot to evaluate and report the risks associated with sharing data with third-party surveillance vendors.
Zevin's proposal comes after a Walmart and Amazon.com shareholder asked the retailers for details on how the immigration crackdown is affecting their finances and supply chains, and as protests erupt after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by a U.S. Immigration agent in Minneapolis.
The investor group wants an "assessment of privacy and civil rights risks, including discrimination or wrongful detention from misuse of customer data," according to the proposal seen by Reuters.
"Such practices may expose the Company to financial and legal risks, including potential data breaches and enforcement of evolving state privacy laws," shareholders said in the proposal. "The Company already faces reputational risks stemming from frequent immigration enforcement raids occurring near its stores and heightened public concerns regarding data privacy."
The company's annual shareholder meeting is expected in May.
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Home Depot has faced criticism for ICE raids in its store parking lots, where immigrant day laborers often congregate looking for opportunities to work on construction projects. Some critics have said the company should speak out against the raids, which have prompted protests at some of its stores.
A Home Depot spokesperson said: "We cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots."
Like other retailers, Home Depot collects demographic information including age, race, ethnicity and gender from companies that provide services on its behalf for fraud prevention, security and asset protection, according to its website.
The company discloses the information to "law enforcement, public and government authorities" that it considers "reasonably necessary to comply with law, support investigations, and protect the rights and property."
Home Depot also uses Flock Safety automated license-plate camera readers in its parking lots and in stores. The company does not grant access to its license-plate readers to federal law enforcement, the company spokesperson said. A report by digital publication 404 Media said ICE agents have used Flock Safety's data for immigration enforcement investigations after being sent the data by local law enforcement. Flock Safety does not have contracts with the Department of Homeland Security or its subagencies, including ICE, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The sharing of Flock Safety data by local police departments with ICE creates "de facto federal surveillance without transparency or consent," the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, of which Zevin is a member, said in a letter to Home Depot's board of directors seen by Reuters.
The home improvement chain, which is not notified ahead of ICE enforcement, has advised employees to report immigration raids to the company, according to the spokesperson. The raids are recorded in a centralized database. Home Depot gives employees the option to go home, with pay, when these events occur.
Most of the resolutions, including the one at Home Depot, are nonbinding. A change by U.S. securities regulators could mean fewer such resolutions make it to corporate ballots in 2026. If this one does, the results could show the extent to which investors are worried about the financial implications of Trump's immigration policies.
(Reporting by Arriana McLymore in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by David Gaffen and Matthew Lewis)
