The Service Employees International Union in California celebrated on Monday after chapter leader David Huerta reached a diversion agreement with prosecutors over his role in anti-deportation riots, resulting in the Justice Department dropping the charges against him.SEIU California claimed Huerta was “vindicated” by the case after the Department of Justice charged him in June 2025 for trying to block federal vehicles with protesters during an immigration raid in Los Angeles. Huerta’s arrest sparked outrage and larger demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement that led to rioting, assaults on law enforcement, and property destruction for days.
SEIU California President David Huerta is captured on video in a red and white shirt obstructing an immigration raid in Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Department of Justice)
“14 months after being tackled and pepper sprayed for observing an ICE raid, David Huerta is vindicated,” SEIU California said in an X post, omitting that Huerta physically obstructed ICE from executing a judicial warrant. “This attempt to weaponize the justice system against anyone who dares to defend immigrant workers collapsed because the truth, and the videos, don’t lie. To every worker, every immigrant, everyone who’s ever been targeted: now is the time to keep organizing.”
