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LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Los Angeles labor leader pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge he obstructed federal agents during a raid of a downtown business in June when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement embarked on a high-profile immigration crackdown in Southern California.
David Huerta, 58, the president of Service Employees International Union California, entered a plea at his arraignment hearing in federal court on Tuesday.
The U.S. attorney in LA had initially charged him with a felony, which could have sent him to prison for as long as six years if he’d been convicted. Last month, however, prosecutors dropped the the felony charge and filed a misdemeanor charge accusing Huerta of knowingly and willfully obstructing, resisting and opposing an officer of the United States.
A misdemeanor conviction can result in a prison sentence of no more than year.
Huerta’s trial is scheduled for Jan. 20 before U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., a Donald Trump appointee. Meanwhile, he’s been released without having to post bail and ordered to turn over his passport.
Lawyers representing Huerta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to prosecutors in the criminal complaint filed in June, Huerta blocked a law enforcement vehicle from entering the facility where ICE was executing a search warrant to look for undocumented workers. Huerta was purportedly directing a crowd of protestors to block the gate and disrupt the ICE operation and ignoring warnings that he could be arrested.
The arrest of the well-known community leader sparked an outcry from ranking Democratic elected officials who have condemned the ICE raids around LA County and the Trump administration’s decision to employ the National Guard to confront protestors.
“President Huerta has long championed immigrant rights, civil liberties and economic justice. His arrest during a lawful act of civil disobedience is an attack on free expression and the labor movement," SEIU California said in a statement after his arrest. “The labor movement will not tolerate retaliation against those who speak out against injustice."
The U.S. attorney’s office in LA has brought numerous criminal cases against people who they say have interfered with the immigration raids in which masked agents in unmarked vehicles have descended on locations where they expect workers without legal authorization to be present.
In July, two staff members at a surgery center were charged with impeding ICE agents who were trying to arrest a landscape worker who had fled inside the facility.
But various media have reported that prosecutors are having trouble convincing grand juries to return indictments against people only accused of obstructing federal agents during immigration raids.
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