Union leader faces federal charge of conspiracy to impede an officer during L.A. ICE raids

Federal authorities on Monday charged David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to impede an officer in connection with his alleged actions during an immigration enforcement raid last week.

Huerta, 58, had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles since Friday and made his initial appearance in federal court Monday afternoon. He is facing a felony charge that carries up to six years in federal prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.

Huerta was released on a $50,000 bond. As part of his conditions, he can’t knowingly be within 100 yards of federal agents or operations.

“I’m very happy that he was released on bond,” Huerta’s attorney, Marilyn Bednarski, said outside of the courthouse Monday. She cited a “tremendous showing of support” for Huerta, including letters sent by politicians on his behalf to the judge, including from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

Bednarski said she’s seen videos circulating of Huerta’s interaction with federal law enforcement and said she saw, “no intimidation, no effort to impede the government.”

Huerta appeared in a packed courtroom in a black T-shirt and black jeans, his hands cuffed in front of him and shackled around the waist. There were four U.S. marshals in the courtroom, wearing what appeared to be tactical gear.

Thirty people watched the proceedings from an overflow room and dozens of supporters filled the main courtroom. Huerta appeared to blink away tears as his family came into the courtroom, and he nodded to his supporters as they filed in.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian presided over the hearing. She said she had reviewed multiple letters from the community about Huerta.

“There are quite a number of them and they are hefty,” the judge said.

“All those people attest to his character and integrity,” Bednarski said.

Ahead of the hearing, the government had filed a request for Huerta’s detention but later withdrew the request.

Huerta was detained and injured while documenting a workplace immigration raid in downtown L.A. on Friday. He was treated at a hospital and transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Nine people tied to the protests have been charged federally, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.

Rallies were scheduled in more than a dozen cities across the U.S., including in L.A., by union members and other supporters demanding Huerta’s release and an end to the workplace immigration raids. California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla sent a letter Monday to the Homeland Security and Justice departments demanding a review of Huerta’s arrest.

The U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, a staunch Trump ally and hard-line conservative who was appointed in April, last week posted a photo on X of Huerta, hands behind his back, after the arrest. Essayli accused Huerta of obstructing the access of federal authorities to a facility where they were conducting a search warrant.

“Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,” Essayli wrote on X. “No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties.”

The labor union said in a statement Friday that Huerta was detained “while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.”

Schiff, who referred to Huerta as “a very prominent union leader in Los Angeles, a very respected voice,” attended the labor leader’s hearing Monday.

Earlier, the senator spoke with reporters in front of a building graffitied in expletives aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said that Huerta was “exercising his lawful right to be present and observe these immigration raids.”

“It’s obviously a very traumatic thing, and now that it looks like the Justice Department wants to try and make an example out of him, it’s all the more traumatic,” Schiff said, when asked how Huerta was doing. “But this is part of the Trump playbook. They selectively use the Justice Department to go after their adversaries. It’s what they do.”

According to the criminal complaint, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margo A. Rocconi authorized search warrants Thursday for four business locations “suspected of unlawfully employing illegal aliens and falsifying employment records related to the status of its employees.”

In an affidavit filed with the federal complaint, a supervisory special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, whose name was redacted, said news quickly spread about “ICE raids” taking place throughout L.A.

According to the complaint, Huerta arrived at Ambiance Apparel in the downtown Los Angeles Fashion District before noon Friday, joining several other protesters. The company was one of the sites of a workplace raid.

“The protesters, including HUERTA appeared to be communicating with each other in a concerted effort to disrupt the law enforcement operations,” the agent wrote.

The agent wrote that Huerta was yelling at and taunting officers and later sat cross-legged in front of a vehicle gate to the location where law enforcement authorities were serving a search warrant.

“In addition to sitting in front of the gate, HUERTA at various times stood up and paced in front of the gate, effectively preventing law enforcement vehicles from entering or exiting the premises through the gate to execute the search warrant,” the agent wrote in the affidavit. “As far as I was aware, this gate was the only location through which vehicles could enter or exit the premises.”

The agent wrote that they told Huerta that if he kept blocking the Ambiance gate, he would be arrested.

Huerta responded that he couldn’t hear the agent through his mask, according to the affidavit. Huerta used a curse word, the agent wrote.

According to the complaint, as a white law enforcement van tried to get through the gate, Huerta stood in its path.

Because Huerta “was being uncooperative, the officer put his hands on HUERTA in an attempt to move him out of the path of the vehicle.”

“I saw HUERTA push back, and in response, the officer pushed HUERTA to the ground,” the agent wrote. “The officer and I then handcuffed HUERTA and arrested him.”

Huerta’s attorney, Bednarski, said the complaint alleges a conspiracy to impede, but that she has “no idea what their evidence could possibly, because that effort that took place at that garment factory, that was members of the public that came out, family members, friends of people and people who just saw what was happening at the garment center.”

“This was not a union action, this was not a concerted activity of any kind,” Bednarski said.

Huerta on Friday released a statement through his union, saying: “What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger.

“This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”

Ahead of the Monday afternoon hearing, Huerta’s cousin, Marta Gonzales, said she was there to represent the family.

“We’re all heartbroken. We have family all over the world,” she said. “Everyone’s been watching.”

Gonzales called Huerta “a giant in our family.”

“This is so unjust,” she said.

Asked about the protests over the weekend, she said she wondered whether Huerta “was the spark for a lot of it. It just angered so many people.”

Huerta’s arraignment is scheduled for July 7.

Monday afternoon, former Vice President Kamala Harris posted on X that she is thankful for Huerta’s release. “But let me be clear — he should never have been arrested,” Harris wrote. “And we must continue to fight for every American’s right to peaceful protest.

Upon Huerta’s release release around 2:30 p.m., he grew teary-eyed as he embraced his family and loved ones and clapped as the crowd chanted “si se puede.” In a press conference outside the federal court building, Huerta thanked his family, including his “labor family,” and also those he had met while held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

“People are fighting for justice across this country,” said Huerta, as he stood in his socks outside the court building. “I had a lot of time to think in there, and I thought both of what I would tell President Trump and I thought about prayer.”

“What I would tell President Trump, Vice President Vance, the director of Homeland Security, ... Stephen Miller: They are not making America great again. This is not making America great again.”