The authorities released the work manager David Huerta this week, a few days after his arrest for having allegedly hindered federal officers while protesting an immigration raid in Los Angeles.
Huerta, the 58 -year -old California president of the International Union of Service Employees, one of the largest unions in the country, said that it was focused on immigrants detained in Los Angeles.
A defender of workers and immigrants in southern California for decades, Huerta has become a flash point in an ongoing confrontation between federal agents of the application of laws and demonstrators.
Friday, the demonstrations broke out in Los Angeles in response to immigration raids, the Trump administration deployed 4,000 national guards and 700 navies in the region. Some demonstrators damaged property, but the demonstrations were largely peaceful.
Here’s what you need to know about David Huerta:
What do we know about the arrest of David Huerta?
Huerta was arrested while he was demonstrated against an immigration raid in a workplace in downtown. He was accused of a conspiracy in order to hinder an officer, a crime that has a prison sentence of up to six years.
Federal law describes the offense as the use of “strength, intimidation or threat” by two or more people to prevent federal officers from exercising their functions, according to 18 article 372 of the American code.
Friday, Huerta arrived at a metal door near the workplace at the end of the morning, according to a criminal complaint, which alleged that Huerta shouted the explanive and struck the door in order to intimidate the federal agents.
As a van of white laws was approaching the door, Huerta stood on the way to the vehicle her hands on her hips, said the criminal complaint.
When the police asked the demonstrators to open the way, Huerta refused, added the complaint, saying that an officer “got their hands on Huerta” in order to get him out of the vehicle. According to the complaint, Huerta then pushed the officer and the officer attacked him, finally putting Huerta Menotté.
In a job Friday, the American lawyer Bill Essayli described Huerta’s arrest, saying: “I don’t care who you are – if you prevent federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted.”
Some union leaders and democratic members of the American chamber criticized the arrest as an effort to intimidate the demonstrators and criminalize peaceful demonstrations.
Democratic representative Judy Chu, whose district includes part of Los Angeles, said in a statement That the federal authorities had sought to “silence those who dare to denounce the cruel and illegal immigration program of the Trump administration”.
“It is clear that the president of the Seiu, David Huerta, exercised his right to observe the activity of the police and to stand with the community in peaceful protest with these raids,” added CHU.
David Huerta, president of Seiu California and Seiu Usww speaks while the governor of California Gavin Newsom signs the fast food Bill Ab1228 in Los Angeles, on September 28, 2023.
Ringo Chiu via AP
After his arrest, Huerta was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for a head injury. He then took on the federal guard. The authorities released Huerta on a bond of $ 50,000 on Monday.
Huerta did not argue, and her indictment is scheduled for July 7, Courthouse News Service reported.
“It was not my intention to be arrested,” Huerta told journalists outside the courthouse after his release, seeming to hold tears.
Huerta said her goal remained on immigrants held by federal officers. “Although we are here and there are protests outside, it means that there are on locking there,” said Huerta.
Who is David Huerta?
Huerta is a longtime organizer and a labor leader of the International Union of Service Employees, which has 2.2 million members nationwide.
He began his career as an organizer of California at Janitors for Justice, a national work campaign that sought to increase wages and improve working conditions for cleaners in commercial buildings. The workforce – composed largely of immigrants – obtained employers’ concessions in a number of large cities, including Los Angeles.
During a term of several decades in Seiu, Huerta supervised organizational campaigns involving thousands of concierges and other service workers. He also directed efforts to bring immigrant workers to organizational activities, including English lessons for union members.
President Barack Obama awarded Huerta as a National Champion of Change in 2014.
In 2022, Huerta was elected president of California Seiu, which had 750,000 members of the union.
The union has helped direct an effort to earn a minimum wage of $ 20 per hour for some 500,000 fast food workers throughout California, many of whom are immigrants. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed in November 2023 a high minimum wage measure for fast food workers. The law entered into force last April.
