UPDATE: Huerta was released on bail Monday afternoon, according to his union.
ORIGINAL STORY: The arrest of a California union leader in the Los Angeles immigration protests has sparked anger across the labor movement, with unions denouncing the Trump administration and calling for the immediate release of David Huerta.
Huerta, the president of a Service Employees International Union affiliate, was injured Friday in what his union said was a workplace raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The union said Huerta was peacefully “exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity” at the time.
He was released from the hospital the same day and detained. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli alleged on X that Huerta had been “interfering with federal officers” by blocking their vehicle and said he would be arraigned in court Monday.
The U.S. attorney’s office in LA said Monday that Huerta had been charged with “conspiracy to impede an officer,” which can carry up to six years in prison.
Huerta is the head of SEIU-United Service Workers West, a powerful California-based union of 50,000 workers, many of them Latino immigrants who work as janitors. He is also the president of SEIU California, an influential group that advocates politically for the union’s chapters in the state.
As a union of service workers, SEIU is among the most outspoken in defending immigrant rights at a time when President Donald Trump promises to ramp up deportations of undocumented workers. Huerta said in a statement through SEIU California that “hard-working people” were being “treated like criminals.”
His arrest reinforces the leading role labor groups could end up playing in combating the White House’s immigration crackdown during Trump’s second term. The AFL-CIO labor federation planned protests Monday at cities across the country calling for Huerta’s release.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, which includes 63 unions, told JS at a rally in Washington, D.C., that unions needed to stand together and defend workers against deportation.
“I think our mission now is basically to show that these raids on workplaces and attacks on families at the community level… [these] are our neighbors, our co-workers,” she said. “These are people who are looking for a better life and are contributing to our economy.”
Myung J. Chun via Getty Images
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest unions in the country, told JS that Huerta’s treatment was “unacceptable.”
“This is about the right to make your feelings heard in a peaceful way,” Saunders said. “That’s exactly what he was doing. Yet he was beaten up and he was taken to the hospital, and he’s still in jail.”
He added, “We cannot put up with this. We cannot sit back, and we can’t be silent.”
The anti-ICE protests sprouted up in Los Angeles on Friday after immigration officials raided an apparel manufacturer downtown. Hundreds of protesters later converged on a federal building in the city and clashed with Department of Homeland Security officers who fired pepper spray. The LA police department said it made more than 50 arrests over the weekend.
Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard members to the city, drawing a rebuke from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor said Sunday that the state was filing a lawsuit against the administration on the grounds it had illegally federalized the California National Guard just to escalate tension.
It appears to be the first time in 60 years that a president has mobilized a state’s National Guard without a governor asking.
Jaime Contreras, the president of SEIU’s Latino Caucus, said in a speech at Monday’s rally in D.C. that he found Trump’s deployment of the National Guard appalling.
“Being a veteran myself, I find that disgusting, disturbing, insulting and unconstitutional,” Contreras said.
