A Los Angeles labor leader who has become a national rallying cry after he was arrested and apparently injured during a protest over an immigration raid last week appeared on Monday in a federal court for a bail hearing on a charge of conspiring to impede an officer and was released on a $50,000 bond.
The treatment of the official David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union California, drew swift condemnation from Democratic elected officials, labor leaders and immigrant rights groups cross the country.
If he is convicted, he faces up to six years in federal prison.
Mr. Huerta’s supporters have cited his First Amendment right to protest and described his violent encounter with immigration authorities as extraordinary and chilling.
“Labor leaders, labor in every industry, the Trades, the Teamsters — even those who might be more inclined to be Republican — everybody is against it,” said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the powerful California Federation of Labor Unions. “We all know David Huerta. He’s been involved in the labor movement for a long time — a long time. And we know he’s not a criminal.”
The U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, has maintained that Mr. Huerta is simply facing the consequences for what he portrays as an effort to interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
“Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,” Mr. Essayli said on X.
In the midst of swirling reports of immigration enforcement raids across Los Angeles on Friday, Mr. Huerta, 58, arrived at a business in a downtown warehouse district. Union leaders and advocates for immigrants have for years routinely protested together in Los Angeles. But on Friday, tensions soon flared between protesters and federal agents.
In a criminal complaint, Ryan Ribner, a federal agent, said that he and other federal agents were executing an immigration search warrant at the business when a woman “started expressing her views against immigration enforcement” and taking video of the agents. Mr. Ribner said that he believed the woman was alerting others to the agents’ presence.
Soon, other demonstrators showed up, including Mr. Huerta, and began chanting and making obscene gestures at the agents, according to the complaint. Mr. Huerta told others to sit down and “stop the vehicles,” according to an undercover officer in the crowd cited in the complaint.
Mr. Huerta yelled at others that, “it’s a public sidewalk; they can’t stop us,” the undercover officer reported.
The agent wrote that Mr. Huerta also gave the crowd instructions in Spanish that a colleague roughly translated as: “We must form a group. Make a circle. Keep walking, keep walking. We have rights. Make a circle, make a circle, comrade.”
According to the complaint, Mr. Huerta and another man “repeatedly banged on the gate in another attempt to intimidate us.”
When Mr. Huerta stood in the path of a white law enforcement van trying to get into the parking lot, an agent “put his hands” on him, according to the complaint.
“I saw Huerta push back, and in response, the officer pushed Huerta to the ground,” the agent wrote.
Video of the episode shows Mr. Huerta on the ground, with the right side of his head resting awkwardly on a curb, surrounded by federal agents and being handcuffed. Union colleagues and immigrant advocates say that Mr. Huerta was pepper sprayed.
Mr. Huerta was briefly hospitalized with a head injury and had remained in federal custody until he was released Monday afternoon.
Mr. Huerta stood in the bright, late afternoon sun in a pair of gray striped socks outside the Roybal Federal Building. He hugged family members and supporters as intermittent chants of “Si se puede,” or “Yes, we can,” broke out. He observed how good it felt to feel the sun. He pulled out scraps of paper that he said were notes from fellow inmates at the federal detention center.
There is more integrity there, he said, among those men, “than in the White House.” The crowd cheered. Mr. Huerta said he expected the government to make an example of him.
“And I’m prepared to take on that journey,” he said. “I’m prepared to face that.”
Senator Adam Schiff of California was in the courtroom, where he said the outpouring of support for Mr. Huerta was a testament to his leadership. Mr. Huerta thanked Mr. Schiff, as well as Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, for helping to draw attention to his case.
Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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