Knewz.com is reporting that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President David Huerta has been charged with a felony for allegedly interfering with federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles. Huerta has been accused of obstructing access to a location under investigation for employing undocumented workers. He was later released on a $50,000 bond. The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions surrounding anti-ICE protests.
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U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed charges against Huerta for obstructing federal agents, calling it unacceptable. State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez condemned the arrest, citing concerns for workers.
SEIU President Faces Felony Charge After ICE Protest
In the hours before tanks barrel down the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s grand military parade Saturday, thousands of Americans will gather across the country in defiance of what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism.
No Kings organizer Ezra Levin said that interest has “skyrocketed” since those protests began — with individuals in 200 more cities signing up to host No Kings events just this week. He said more people are now expected to turn out than the estimated 3.5 million who participated in a similar nationwide day of action in April.
“We’re no longer talking to folks who are just paying attention to politics,” said Levin, the co-founder of the liberal advocacy group Indivisible. “People are seeing this overreach by Trump and saying, ‘I don’t like that — what can I do?’”
Images of immigrants being swept up at moments in their daily lives — at car washes and Home Depots, to name just two places — seem to have struck a chord with a wider swath of the public than was previously engaged, observers say, though the concept of deporting those in the country illegally still has broad support.
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‘No Kings’ protests nationwide to push back on Trump’s ‘overreach’
On the same day as the president’s military parade in D.C., thousands of people are expected to protest what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism.
In true Bay Area fashion, Monday night’s protest had its own rhythm.
An estimated 9,000 protesters gathered for a rally and march that started at San Francisco’s 24th & Mission BART Plaza around 6 p.m. to protest the recent raids carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across California. Tracks like YG’s “FDT” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” rang out on Mission Street, along with chants like “Move ICE, get out the way!” echoing through the crowd in a nod to Ludacris. Protesters rolled through on scooters and skates, some draped in keffiyehs, others wearing face masks and clothing scrawled with anti-fascist messages. Many were waving upside down American flags and cardboard posters bearing anti-ICE slogans, lambasting the agency’s actions as unlawful and illegal.
Galvanized by mounting unrest across California and large-scale demonstrations in Los Angeles — where, after three days of protest, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 700 Marines and over 4,000 National Guard troops, bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s authority — Bay Area residents took to the streets in a show of solidarity, advocating for immigrants of all nationalities, ethnicities and creeds.
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“And by epic battle, I mean a battle that is going to have consequences for many years, for a long time to come,” Baker said. “And you know that the Trump regime has a strategy to wear us down, to shock and awe, coming at us from so many different directions. That’s their idea, that we will give up and go home.“
“The people rising up is the only thing that’s going to stop them now,” he concluded.
Thousands gather in SF for ‘epic battle’ against ICE amid Calif. raids
The Trump White House has been demanding many, many more deportations, but hasn’t been getting enough of the “worst of the worst” it is supposedly targeting.
So, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resolved to target the more abundant “not so bad.”
Going after whatever murderers and rapists actually did cross the southern border was one thing most people can applaud. Going after people who are just seeking to make an honest living was sure to trigger protests.
But Donald Trump always welcomes any opportunity to justify his fearmongering about chaos in the streets—and what better place than a deep-blue state like California, which is headed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (whom Trump always calls Newscum)?
Even relatively minor disturbances could be hyped into a pretext for Trump to deploy active-duty military, as he wanted to do when Black Lives Matter staged protests outside the White House during his first term. He was dissuaded from doing so in 2020 by the combined objections of Attorney General William Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but always expressed regret about not sending in troops—even though the peaceful D.C. protesters were cleared with unnecessary brutality by federal law enforcement officers.
Trump is now getting another chance, this time with an attorney general and secretary of defense who only know to utter variations of, “Yes, Sir! Only you can save the nation, and thereby save civilization!”
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A number of white ICE vehicles that exited the area were pelted with rocks by protesters. Video of that prompted Trump’s new FBI director to further hype the disorder by putting a rock-thrower on the agency’s 10 Most Wanted List.
Rock thrower wanted? Dead or alive? LOL!!!
On Saturday, Trump issued an executive order deploying a state’s national guard without the governor’s approval, which has not been done in more than half a century. Trump ignored Newsom’s warning that it would only inflame the situation. Trump said he was sending in 2,000 California guardsmen and women, but only around 300 were immediately dispatched. Trump went online to declare that he and his team had saved the day.
“A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve. I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other relevant Departments and Agencies, to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored.”
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“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” Trump said. “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
He went on, insisting “Newscum” and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be saying, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.’”
The guy is off in Lala Land!
A senior law enforcement source who had dealt firsthand with Trump suggested to the Daily Beast that the commander–in-chief was excited by the very possibility of being able to send active-duty military against protesters.
“That’s what gives him a boner,” the source said.
Opinion: How ICE’s L.A. Raids Spiraled Into the ‘Riot’ Trump Thirsted For
The Trump White House has been demanding many, many more deportations, but hasn’t been getting enough of the “worst of
President Donald Trump has authorized the deployment of another 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
About 700 U.S. Marines were mobilized to support the California National Guard to protect federal personnel and property in Los Angeles.
Trump said that he would support arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom for purported obstruction of federal immigration enforcement actions in LA.
Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for deploying National Guard troops to deal with protests in LA.
Trump authorizes deploying 2,000 more National Guard troops to LA
President Donald Trump is “unhinged right now,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom said, arguing that federalizing National Guard troops for the protests was illegal.
Armed agents in tactical gear threw flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd in Los Angeles’s Fashion District. Later, agents fired less-than-lethal ammunition at protesters outside a detention center.
Federal agents in tactical gear armed with military-style rifles threw flash-bang grenades to disperse an angry crowd near downtown Los Angeles on Friday as they conducted an immigration raid on a clothing wholesaler, the latest sign of tensions between protesters and law enforcement over raids carried out at stores, restaurants and court buildings.
The operation was one of at least three immigration sweeps conducted in Los Angeles on Friday. In another one, federal agents converged at a Home Depot where day laborers regularly gather in search of work.
The raid at the clothing wholesaler began about 9:15 a.m. in the Fashion District, less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall.
It was an extraordinary show of force. Dozens of federal agents wearing helmets and green camouflage arrived in two hulking armored trucks and other unmarked vehicles, and were soon approached by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Some agents carried riot shields and others held rifles, as well as shotguns that appeared to be loaded with less-than-lethal ammunition.
Agents cleared a path for two white passenger vans that exited the area. A short time later, as officers boarded their vehicles to leave, a few agents lobbed flash-bang grenades at groups of people who chased alongside the slow-moving convoy. Some protesters had thrown eggs and other objects at the vehicles. At one point, the vehicles snagged and crushed at least two electric scooters that protesters had used.
Agents Use Military-Style Force Against Protesters at L.A. Immigration Raid
Armed agents in tactical gear threw flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd in Los Angeles’s Fashion District. Later, agents fired less-than-lethal ammunition at protesters outside a detention center.
Reeling from widespread harsh ICE raids and responding protests and resistance over the past 24 hours, Los Angeles has become a powder keg with Donald Trump deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom and other SoCal leaders.
As rock-throwing and bellowing Angelenos sought to stop undocumented individuals being targeted by masked and heavily armored federal agents from being dragged away from a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif. and LA’s Westlake neighborhood on Saturday, Trump took to social media to announce a de facto takeover of the City of Angels. “If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” he said (caps’ Trump).
Declaring “to the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” in a memorandum today, Trump says the federalized troops’ “duration of duty shall be for 60 days or at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense.”
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Raising the stakes even more, and seeming to disregard federal law, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth proclaimed that “if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”
Trump Deploys 2,000 Troops To L.A. As Backlash & Protests To ICE Raids Surge; POTUS Action “Purposefully Inflammatory,” Newsom Warns
LA is feeling the heavy hand of the White House tonight as 1000s of troops are deployed in response to protests & resistance to widespread ICE Raids.
