“It is deeply troubling that a U.S. citizen, union leader, and upstanding member of the Los Angeles community continues to be detained by the federal government for exercising his rights to observe immigration enforcement,” the senators wrote in the letter, demanding the department provide additional details about the incident by Friday.
Abel Fuaau, a district representative for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 39, demanded elected officials provide the support that labor and community leaders need to “fight back against these brown-shirted goons goose-stepping across California, wreaking havoc on our cities, on our families, on our neighbors.”
“Make no mistake, history is being written right now,” he said at Monday’s rally. “And as the old Union hymn goes, which side are you on? Who are you with?”
The criminal complaint alleges that Huerta joined other protesters before noon on Friday at the scene of the raid, after a federal judge authorized search warrants for four businesses “suspected of unlawfully employing illegal aliens and falsifying employment records related to the status of its employees.”
A federal officer, whose name is redacted in the affidavit, accused Huerta of yelling at and taunting officers and then sitting cross-legged in front of the vehicle gate, “effectively preventing law enforcement vehicles from entering or exiting the premises through the gate to execute the search warrant.”
Huerta’s arrest, and subsequent backlash, follow a weekend of dramatic protests against raids in L.A. and surrounding areas, in which activists clashed with local law enforcement officials. In response to the unrest, President Trump deployed as many as 2,000 National Guardsmen into the city on Saturday without Newsom’s consent, arguing that doing so was necessary to protect ICE and other federal immigration agents from the “violent mobs.”
The deployment, which appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, was roundly condemned by Newsom and scores of other state and local leaders, accusing the president of inflaming tensions and sowing chaos.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced the state planned to sue the administration over its deployment of National Guard troops, saying that the president had unlawfully “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” said Bonta, who planned to seek a court order requesting a restraining order to halt the deployment.
The Pentagon on Monday also mobilized more than 700 Marines in California to respond to the protests, NPR confirmed.
In San Francisco, Rudy Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, warned demonstrators on Monday that the administration’s actions pose a direct threat to American society and democracy.
“It is fundamentally under attack by a fascist state, and there will be a time when David Huerta is not the only labor leader,” he said.
KQED’s Samantha Kennedy contributed to this report.
