The charge against a Southern California labor leader who was arrested earlier this year while protesting an immigration raid will be reduced to a misdemeanor, according to court records.
David Huerta was charged with obstruction, resisting or resisting a federal officer — a Class A misdemeanor, according to a filing Friday by Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in federal court.
However, prosecutors on Saturday filed a motion for an order dismissing without prejudice to the original charge of conspiracy to obstruct an officer.
The Justice Department confirmed in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday that it had taken steps to dismiss the felony complaint against Huerta.
Huerta is president of the Service Employees International Union California. He was arrested on June 6 while protesting outside a Los Angeles business where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations.
A crowd of people gathered outside and shouted at the officers. Huerta sat in front of a vehicle gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to prevent law enforcement from entering or exiting, a special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in an earlier federal court filing.
An officer told Huerta to leave and then placed his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle, the officer wrote. Huerta pushed back and the officer pushed Huerta to the ground and arrested him, according to the complaint.
Huerta was later released from federal custody on $50,000 bond.
Huerta’s union represents hundreds of thousands of janitors, security guards and other workers across California. His arrest became a rallying cry for immigrant advocates across the country as they called for his release and an end to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Abbe David Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, Huerta’s attorneys, said in a statement that they will seek “the most expeditious process” to vindicate him.
“In the four months that have passed since David’s arrest, it has become even clearer that there were no grounds to charge him, and certainly not for the way he was treated,” they wrote. “This case is not a good-faith pursuit of justice, but a bald act of retaliation designed to silence dissent and punish opposition. It reflects the Trump administration’s continued weaponization of prosecutorial power against its perceived adversaries.”
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