THE INTERNATIONAL federation UNI Global Union has strongly condemned the arrest of David Huerta, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, who was injured and detained while observing and documenting a violent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) state raid in Los Angeles last Friday.
‘Huerta was acting within his First Amendment rights as a community observer, standing in solidarity with immigrant workers during a time of crisis.
‘His arrest is not only an attempt to silence a labour leader – it is a disturbing signal that holding power accountable can itself be treated as a crime,’ the UNI Global Union stated.
David Huerta began his organising career with Justice for Janitors, the groundbreaking campaign that mobilised immigrant janitors across the United States to demand dignity, respect, and better working conditions. That movement – born in Los Angeles, and powered by courageous people – transformed lives and redefined what was possible for low-wage immigrant workers.
Like the janitors who laid down in the streets of Los Angeles in the 1990s demanding recognition and rights, Huerta was standing peacefully with today’s immigrant workers – many of whom face renewed threats of detention, deportation, and family separation.
‘UNI Global Union demands the immediate release of David Huerta and all others detained while exercising their First Amendment rights.
‘We denounce the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and militarised police tactics against unarmed demonstrators and we call on United States authorities to respect the rights of all workers – especially those in immigrant communities who have long powered the American economy while being denied full protection and recognition.
‘Justice for Janitors taught us that when workers rise together, history bends toward justice. David Huerta continues that fight, and UNI Global Union stands firmly by his side.’
Huerta, 58, was treated at a hospital and then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., where he remained in custody as of 5.30pm, according to a spokesperson for the labour union on Friday.
Protesters spray-painted the centre with messages such as ‘F— ICE’, ‘Burn Prisons’ and ‘Abolish ICE’.
‘What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger,’ Huerta said in a statement from the hospital.
‘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.’
The labour union’s statement said Huerta was arrested while ‘while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.’
Federal authorities, however, claimed that Huerta deliberately obstructed federal agents’ access to a worksite where they were executing a warrant, by blocking their vehicle.
Agents executed four search warrants across L.A. on Friday related to the ‘suspected harbouring of people illegally in the country,’ according to Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
‘Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are – if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,’ US Attorney Bill Essayli wrote in a statement on X.
Elected officials representing Los Angeles at the city, county, state and federal levels released a flurry of statements condemning Huerta’s arrest, and slamming the raids and the Trump administration’s escalation of deportations.
‘SEIU California President David Huerta was injured by federal agents and wrongfully detained,’ said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. ‘I am calling for his immediate release.
‘This is a democracy. People have a right to peacefully protest, to observe law enforcement activity, and to speak out against injustice.’
Governor Gavin Newsom called Huerta a respected leader, patriot and advocate for working people.
‘No one should ever be harmed for witnessing government action,’ he wrote on X.
Aside from Huerta, 44 people were ‘administratively arrested’ during Friday’s immigration action, O’Keefe said.
Following the arrests on Friday, hundreds of people rallied outside the Los Angeles Federal Building, condemning the crackdown and demanding Huerta’s release.
By 6.30pm, a crowd of more than 100 people had also gathered outside an immigration services building and detention centre downtown, with several protesters wearing T-shirts with the words, ‘ICE out of L.A.’
Mandy Bell, a 65-year-old Koreatown resident, said she’d seen a video from the protests earlier in the day and was eager to join.
‘Immigrants are not the enemy,’ she said.
‘I didn’t think the raids would come here. It’s so wrong, so I’ll be out here. I gotta find out when the next protest is.’
At around 7.00pm the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse.
Then at 7.30pm around eight police vehicles and a group of about 50 officers in riot gear closed in on a group of protesters on North Alameda Street, while a secondary group of protesters further back shouted ‘shame on you’ at the officers.
‘We’re out here because people are living in fear right now,’ one protester shouted at an officer.
‘Today, SEIU-USWW President, my friend, and constituent David Huerta was thrown to the ground, tasered, injured and arrested for exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity,’ said Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), who represents areas of Los Angeles.
‘This isn’t just an overreach – it’s a nationwide pattern of suppression. We must stand together.’
The Trump administration said it would send 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles after protesters confronted immigration agents during Friday’s raids on local businesses .
The move marks a major escalation in Trump’s crackdown on alleged illegal immigration.
On Saturday, a crowd of protesters had gathered near a Home Depot at 6400 Alondra Boulevard in Paramount for a peaceful demonstration where people chanted ‘ICE go home’ and ‘No justice, no peace’.
Some protesters were just yelling at the deputies and federal agents, who then suddenly deployed a series of flash-bang grenades.
After a time, a few protesters responded by throwing rocks and other items at ICE vehicles, then the deputies attacked a car they allege drove directly at them, with flash-bang grenades.
Around 4.00pm the confrontation near a Home Depot at 6400 Alondra Boulevard was declared an unlawful assembly, and officials warned protesters in Spanish and English to quit the scene immediately.
During the protest, at least one protester was injured, witnesses reported, and a Border Patrol official said an agent was hurt.
By 7.00pm about 100 protesters had gathered in the area of the 710 Freeway near Atlantic Avenue and Alondra Boulevard, where there were clashes with L.A. County sheriff’s deputies.
In a statement shortly afterward, the Sheriff’s Department said: ‘We are planning for long-term civil unrest and collaborating with our law enforcement partners.’
Earlier on Saturday, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s ‘border czar’, said officials were cracking down hard on the unrest and that the National Guard would be deployed to the city by Saturday night.
This was confirmed on Saturday night by California Governor Gavin Newsom who said the federal government was moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers.
In a statement, Newsom criticised the federal action, saying that local law enforcement was already mobilised and that sending in troops was a ‘purposefully inflammatory’ move which would ‘only escalate tensions’.
‘There is currently no unmet need,’ Newsom said. ‘This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.’
At the Paramount protest, chants of ‘Fuera ICE’ — ICE, get out – could be heard as flash-bang grenades deployed by federal agents lighted up the scene.
The agents appeared to include members of Border Patrol, the United States Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations.
José Luis Solache Jr., the California Assembly member who represents the Paramount area that includes the Home Depot, said he’d been on the way to a community event when he saw Border Patrol cars exit the freeway. He decided to turn around.
Solache said he arrived and began observing alongside other demonstrators in a peaceful effort when the agents started shooting off canisters in their direction, forcing him and others to run through the smoke.
After identifying himself to agents, he tried to get information about what they were doing, but they would not answer his questions.
‘You see the community here, demonstrating that they don’t want them here,’ he said as flash-bangs went off nearby.
‘Our hardworking communities are being targeted. These are hardworking families. These are not criminals. You’re going to facilities where people are literally working.’