By Jeanne Kuang
CalMatters

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The union leader federal agents detained at an immigration protest in Los Angeles last week is well known to California’s Democratic leadership from his years of activism in and out of the Capitol.

That’s one reason so many leading Democrats jumped to his defense.

David Huerta, the 58-year-old president of a statewide janitor’s union and of the Service Employees International Union California, was arrested by federal agents Friday outside a Los Angeles garment warehouse where protesters gathered to watch and oppose an apparent workplace immigration raid.

The denouncements poured in quickly after that.

“David Huerta is a respected leader, a patriot, and an advocate for working people,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “No one should ever be harmed for witnessing government action.”

Federal Prosecutors Charging Huerta

Federal prosecutors are charging Huerta with impeding a federal agent — which comes with a prison sentence of up to six years. He remains in federal custody. The union has maintained he was peacefully protesting. U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, today wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security calling for a review of his arrest.

At SEIU California, Huerta leads a union with nearly 750,000 members that is a heavyweight in statewide politics. It represents a wide range of workers, from nurses and university researchers to janitors and public sector employees.

It’s a major donor to Democratic candidates; an endorsement with its purple logo is a badge of honor for some lawmakers. The union’s recent victories include a $25 minimum wage for all workers at health care facilities.

“Everyone knows him,” said Lorena Gonzalez, leader of the California Labor Federation, a politically powerful statewide group of unions. Huerta is also vice president of the federation’s board. “He’s been around for a very long time in the movement … We sounded the alarm and everybody stood up.”

Huerta is a US Citizen

Huerta is a U.S. citizen. His grandparents immigrated from Mexico to work in the fields, and his father was a Teamsters union member, he has said. He’s been organizing janitors since as early as the 1990s, led historic strikes in Los Angeles over wages and been involved with immigration politics for just as long.

When federal authorities — working then under the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service — swept through California’s airports in a post-9/11 crackdown on immigrant janitors and baggage handlers who were employed illegally, Huerta called for reforms that would allow more workers to get their papers.

As leader of the SEIU United Service Workers West, which represents janitors and security guards across California, he’s emphasized English classes and citizenship for members. In 2016, his union successfully pushed for the state to pass training and stronger harassment protections for janitors who often face sexual assault working alone on the night shift.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “fascist tactics.” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff called it “part of a larger campaign of intimidation by the White House.”

By Saturday morning, Congressional Democratic leaders from around the country were criticizing the raids and calling for Huerta’s release.

Federal authorities accuse Huerta of obstructing agents, though the circumstances of his arrest remain blurry. Video posted Friday on social media by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat, appears to show agents in law enforcement vests pushing Huerta to the ground as protesters cry out nearby.

Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, wrote on social media that Huerta had “deliberately obstructed” federal agents who had a judicial warrant by blocking their car. Ciaran McEvoy, spokesperson for Essayli’s office, would not share the warrant, saying only that the agents were “targeting employers and businesses believed to not be in compliance with federal immigration laws.”

Huerta Is Detained in Downtown Los Angeles

The union leader is detained at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA and is scheduled to make an initial appearance this afternoon on a charge of conspiracy to impede an officer.

In a criminal complaint filed Sunday, a Department of Homeland Security special supervisory agent accused Huerta of coordinating with other protesters, “effectively preventing law enforcement vehicles from entering or exiting the premises through the gate to execute the search warrant.”

“Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,” Huerta said in a statement released by SEIU California after he was treated in the hospital for injuries during the arrest on Friday. “We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice.”

The union is planning protests in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento today to call for his release.

“He represents a union that is a lot of immigrant women,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a constant and consistent voice for immigrant workers, and he’s been at the forefront of fighting for a path to citizenship and to stop deportations and workplace raids.”

At the warehouse where Huerta was arrested Friday, a crowd of workers’ advocates and other protesters had gathered to watch federal agents at Ambiance Apparel; an immigration raid was also reported at Ambiance’s storefront in downtown LA’s garment district.

ICE reported that it served four search warrants that day, arresting 44 immigrants who were in the U.S. without authorization, all during worksite raids.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.