Union members rally to support California leader arrested during ICE protests

Lia Russell, The Sacramento Bee on Jun 9, 2025

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Organized labor joined California politicians on Monday in accusing the White House of manufacturing a political conflict to suppress protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Members of Service Employees International Union rallied nationwide Monday afternoon in support of SEIU California President David Huerta, who made his initial courtroom appearance in Los Angeles after he was arrested Friday while protesting raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The Trump administration has since sent Marines and California National Guard members to guard federal buildings and officials and suggested it will arrest Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A judge released Huerta Monday afternoon on a $50,000 bond after prosecutors charged him with felony conspiracy to impede an officer, which carries a prison sentence of up to six years, according to court documents. Huerta was briefly hospitalized before the Bureau of Prisons transferred him to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he spent the weekend. Videos circulating on social media of the labor leader’s arrest showed masked agents forcing him to the ground and cuffing him while his head lay on a curb.

Hueta, 58, appeared outside the courthouse after his release and said he’d keep fighting for immigrants being detained by ICE.

“What happened to me is not about me; this is about something much bigger,” he said in a statement after his arrest. “This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening.”

A few hundred people wearing eggplant purple SEIU shirts from Local 2015 and Justice with Janitors — the union where Huerta started organizing — rallied in support of him outside the Capitol. Members of the Sacramento chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation also spoke, along with migrant workers and advocates who walked to the Capitol from Vacaville in support of immigrants’ rights.

SEIU California represents 750,000 California workers in both the private and public sector, and was the chief advocate behind a law raising fast food workers’ hourly minimum wage to $20.

Brandon Dawkins, a 15-year member of SEIU Local 1021 who works for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said he was angered by news of Huerta’s arrest and detainment.

“He was arrested for doing the same thing that all labor leaders do, which is protect our community,” he said in an interview at the rally. “David Huerta did nothing wrong. I’m glad he was released, although it took $50K for him to be released, but at the same time, this isn’t the end of it ... It is our job as the labor movement to really stand up and fight for those who are on the front lines.”

Taza Misha Alexander, a member of SEIU Local 1021’s executive board, echoed the same sentiment to rally-goers.

“We are here with our immigrant family,” she said. “We ask that ICE be disbanded. We ask that the families who are being currently detained be released.”

“We are relieved that David is free and reunited with his family and we are deeply grateful to the hundreds of elected officials, civil rights leaders, labor partners and allies from across the nation who stood in solidarity and demanded David’s release,” said SEIU International President April Verrett.

“It is shameful and wrong that this administration is attempting to tear apart our families, communities and disrupt the lives of peaceful, hardworking people. It is yet another attempt to use people’s race and country of origin to divide us as Americans. It won’t work. And these cruel ICE raids are economically destructive, hurting all working people by targeting the essential immigrant workers who are the backbone of our economy.”

The AFL-CIO, the U.S.’s largest labor federation, called for Huerta’s release, along with other powerful unions like AFSCME and IATSE. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an investigation into his arrest.

Newsom, who was in Los Angeles Monday, has not said anything publicly since Huerta’s arrest, when he called the labor leader a “patriot” and advocate for working people.

His office did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said he was suing to block the Department of Defense from taking over the California National Guard and sending 2,000 members to suppress immigration protests in Los Angeles. Hours later, the DOD said it was sending a Marine battalion from Twentynine Palms to join the 300 Guard members already in the city. Late Monday afternoon, Newsom said that the Trump administration was planning on sending another 2,000 Guard troops to Los Angeles.

“The first 2,000?” Newsom said in a post on X. “Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed — the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders.”

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