The Department of Justice moves to dismiss criminal charges against labor leader David Huerta
The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to dismiss the criminal case against David Huerta, the president of SEIU-United Service Workers West. Huerta was arrested in June 2025 during a demonstration against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Los Angeles. The arrest occurred during the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown in California. While the government initially charged Huerta with a felony for conspiring to impede an officer, the charge was later downgraded to a misdemeanor. The administration announced that the government does not arrest people for peacefully protesting and noted that Huerta has complied with his bond terms. If he continues to good behavior, the case will be fully dismissed by the end of August. Huerta and his allies declared the move a victory, arguing the original charge was baseless and intended to silence critics of the administration's immigration tactics. His lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, stated that the case revealed a weakness in the justice system when charges are held for months before being dropped once they fail to survive scrutiny.