Labor unions around the US are demanding the release of a labor leader arrested and injured during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids on 6 June in Los Angeles.
David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-USWW, was serving as a community observer during an Ice raid in Los Angeles, and was arrested by federal agents over allegations of interfering.
He was initially hospitalized and released later on Friday for injuries sustained during the arrest. Videos circulating online show officers shoving Huerta to the ground during the arrest before handcuffing him. He was charged with conspiring to impede an officer on Monday.
“What happened to me is not about me; this is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening,” Huerta said in a statement after his release from the hospital. “Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”
He has remained in custody, as labor leaders around the US are calling for his release and an end to the immigration enforcement raids and use of the national guard to suppress protests in Los Angeles. California has sued the Trump administration over its decision to federalize the national guard.
Leaders of major unions convened hundreds of protesters on Monday outside justice department headquarters in Washington DC, where they called for the release of Huerta and the end of Ice raids.
“David was the first one to say this isn’t just about him,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country. “We know what this administration is doing, so we are saying to Donald Trump and all of his allies: we will not, we will not, scapegoat immigrants.”
Jaime Contreras, an executive vice-president at the SEIU 32BJ, representing workers across the north-eastern United States, said Huerta’s case would serve as a rallying cry for his members and supporters, because “there’s a lot more people that agree with us than agree with them”.
“David for us is … he’s a labor leader, he’s a brother, he’s a union member, he’s a respected leader in California, and we’re here to let him know that he’s not alone,” Contreras said.
He compared Huerta’s arrest to the saga of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order, and last week brought back to the United States to answer allegations of human smuggling.
“We’re not gonna stand by that,” Contreras said. “There’s always a next election, so we’re gonna make everybody pay at the voting booth when it comes to election time.”
In New York City, SEIU 32BJ’s president, Manny Pastreich, told union members and protesters: “Everything we hold dear is under attack. Unions, workers, freedom, immigrant communities, healthcare, the constitution, our union brothers and sisters.
“We must fight back. We reject these attacks on our communities and demand the immediate release of our union brother David Huerta,” he said.
Huerta, well-known among Democrats in California given his long record as a union leader in the state, received support from Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic officials across the US, including the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
“SEIU refuses to be silent in the face of these horrific attacks on working communities. Standing in solidarity as a movement of working people is not new to us,” said April Verrett, international president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“SEIU protects the rights and dignity of hard-working people, and the safety of workers in the workplace. Imagine what it feels like for thousands of workers around the country to be attacked by masked men with weapons, or to bear witness to their co-workers getting dragged away, knowing their kids may not see them again. We demand David Huerta’s immediate release and an end to these abusive workplace raids.”
In addition to New York and Washington DC, the union is on Monday leading or participating in rallies in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, and St Paul, Minnesota, to call for Huerta’s release, for the California national guard to stand down and for an end to the Ice raids.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, has also called for Huerta’s release.
“As the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has unnecessarily targeted our hard-working immigrant brothers and sisters, David was exercising his constitutional rights and conducting legal observation of Ice activity in his community,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “The labor movement stands with David and we will continue to demand justice for our union brother until he is released.”
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest public employee union in the US, also called for Huerta’s release.
“Americans have a constitutional right to free speech. That right was violated when Ice agents violently arrested and injured Huerta as he peacefully observed immigration enforcement activity in his community,” Saunders said. “Huerta was exercising his legal right to speak out and bear witness. In response, Ice used force, caused harm, and continues to hold him in unjust detention.”
