Union leader arrested in ICE raid says it’s time to go

David Huerta faces up to a year in prison for allegedly interfering in a federal immigration raid last year in his hometown of Los Angeles. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial, but in the meantime he will not remain silent.

“They approached me, sprayed me with pepper spray, detained me [while] exercise a First Amendment right,” Huerta, a prominent California union leader, told News themezone in an interview this week. “I firmly believe that everything that has happened since then, not only to me but to others, is intended to silence dissent. “It is state repression against people exercising their First Amendment rights.”

Huerta, 58, is the president of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, a union of 50,000 janitors and other service workers, many of them first- and second-generation immigrants. He became national news last June due to his encounter with federal agents outside a wholesale clothing company, where Huerta allegedly refused to give way to a police van. An officer grabbed him and Huerta pushed him back, according to a complaint. from a spectator video caught the officers throwing Huerta to the ground and arresting him.

Prosecutors initially filed a felony conspiracy charge that carried up to six years in prison. them later degraded the misdemeanor charge after several similar federal cases failed to result in convictions.

Huerta, a father of two, said the possibility of going to prison was a lot to deal with from the beginning. He felt as if Trump-aligned prosecutors saw him as a “trophy” that should be “put on the mantle.” (Federal Attorney Bill Essayli aware a photo of Huerta handcuffed and wrote in

“I firmly believe that the people who are now in the crosshairs of this administration will be the heroes of this democracy.”

– David Huerta

But he said he now feels responsible not only to challenge what he considers an unjust accusation, but also to continue speaking out against the government’s deportation campaign.

“It didn’t take me long to realize, but what he wants is to bend our collective knee, you know?” Huerta said about President Donald Trump. “I think every time we bend that knee, he’s going to demand that someone else bend it, and someone else, and someone else… I refuse to bend that knee. I refuse to be silent. He gave me a platform, and I’m going to use this platform as much as I can.”

Huerta has been a high-profile figure in California labor and Democratic politics for years, so it was not surprising that videos of his arrest sparked some of the first protests against the White House’s immigration policies. like him sat in federal custodyhad no idea that people across the country had taken to the streets to demonstrate for his release.

“I didn’t realize the impact it had until I got out,” he said.

Much has changed since then. The Trump administration has expanded its deportation campaign to other Democratic-led cities. The Republican Congress has poured billions of dollars into a hiring spree for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And masked officers shot and killed at least two anti-ICE protesters.

But Huerta does not feel despair about all this. What he has seen unfold in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and most recently, Minneapolis has filled him with so much hope.

“In Minneapolis, it’s like they’ve taken things to another level, another level of resistance,” he said. “That’s the most impactful part. And I think people see it.”

And he added: “I firmly believe that the people who are in the crosshairs of this administration right now will be the heroes of this democracy.”

Huerta does not feel uncomfortable in a street protest, since he started as an organizer in the emblematic SEIU. Justice for janitors campaign in the 1990s, when the union deployed civil disobedience to raise wages for poor, mostly Latino workers in Southern California. For him, immigrant rights and workers’ rights have always been intertwined, not only in his union but also in his family. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Mexico; his father was a farm worker and later truck driver in East Los Angeles. (Huerta’s mother died when he was 4 years old).

ETIENNE LAURENT via Getty Images

“[I saw] “The impact the union had on my family,” he said. “My father was a single father and could support his children by loading and unloading trucks. I don’t know if that is possible today.”

Unions are a key ally in the broader coalition opposing Trump’s immigration crackdown, but not all individual unions choose to speak out. Some labor officials fear alienating conservative members or angering a White House eager for retaliation.

Huerta said it was a basic matter of solidarity for all unions to join the fight at this time.

“To be completely honest, we’re not there yet,” he said. “We, as a labor movement, can no longer act as if there is no side to choose, as if somehow… our role is to represent workers, not organize workers. Workers have to be able to lean in and choose the side of justice, fair justice. Somehow we can’t play in the middle.”

According to Huerta, the Minneapolis union movement has helped show the way.

After an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in her car, an alliance of labor, faith, and community groups helped orchestrate a general strike on January 23 to protest the federal presence in the Twin Cities. Turnout was strong enough to close many businesses for the day, leading to a massive demonstration of thousands of people in downtown Minneapolis.

“Should we use a general strike as a tool? Absolutely. We should be prepared to use that tool because I think our democracy is worth it.”

– David Huerta

Many unions avoid talk of a general strike, as their contracts generally prohibit work stoppages while the contracts are in effect. But in Minneapolis, the local labor council took a leading role in organizing the event, and many local unions encouraged their members to miss work and brave frigid temperatures to protest.

Huerta is convinced that general strikes should be an arrow in the quiver of workers, to get out of a “defensive posture” (training to know their rights, rapid response for detained workers) and go on “the offensive.”

“Donald Trump is doing very well because he crushes [the system]he breaks it, he rebuilds it the way he wants,” Huerta said. “And unless we are willing to be bold, we will find ourselves outside of that equation… So should we use a general strike as a tool? Absolutely. “We should be prepared to use that tool because I think our democracy is worth it.”

Some union leaders have been urging unions to align their contracts to expire on May 1, 2028, to put a mass May Day general strike on the table. Among them is Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, which arranged for its members’ contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis to end on that date.

Huerta has also become a promoter of the idea. His union’s contract for California janitors is already scheduled to expire that day. Speaking at the UAW conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Huerta said all unions should prepare to “shut this whole thing down.”

“We’re not going to win without taking some risk,” he told News themezone. “Think about it: an immigrant worker who leaves home every day to go to work runs that risk every day because [need to] provide for their families. “I think unions have to ask themselves…what are we willing to risk as a means to protect families and make change?”