SF takes to the streets to protest ICE raids, demand Huerta's release
Driving the news: David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, was arrested in Los Angeles Friday while serving as a community observer at a worksite immigration raid.
He has been charged with conspiracy to impede an officer for allegedly blocking a law enforcement vehicle.
The latest: Over 100 people packed the street in front of the Hiram W. Johnson State Building at noon Monday, calling for Huerta's release and an end to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The rally was among over 30 spearheaded by local unions across the country.
What they're saying:"It's so painful to know that this can happen to any one of us," SEIU Local 87 president Olga Miranda, who organized the protest, told Axios. "All he was doing was standing there to make sure enforcement wasn't brutal."
Between the lines: Immigrants have played critical roles in California unions over the last few decades, especially in the Bay Area, which has seen success organizing janitors, health care workers and fast food employees.
"Everybody should be worried ... . They're offended by our mere existence," Miranda said, referencing her identity as a brown Chicana woman. She noted that many people are increasingly scared to show up to work because of potential raids.
Yes, but: Miranda emphasized that while exercising First Amendment rights is important, she does not condone "anything being set on fire" in light of Sunday's protests, where multiple Waymos were set on fire.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
9 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Gavin Newsom teased a redistricting fight with Texas. Can he even do that?
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested he's contemplating a response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's efforts to redraw congressional maps to favor Republicans, but California's laws will make any counter moves by Newsom difficult — if not impossible. Newsom began making comments last week after Abbott announced plans for the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature to draw new congressional maps in a special legislative session. Texas, like other states, redrew its maps after the 2020 census. New map-drawing normally wouldn't happen until the next census in 2030 absent a successful lawsuit forcing a state to redo them. But the New York Times has reported Trump's political advisers are pushing for Texas to redraw its maps ahead of the midterms to be more favorable to Republicans. The California Legislature, where Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers, 'could gerrymander like no other state,' Newsom told liberal news outlet the Tennessee Holler in an interview that published Thursday, referring to the practice of redrawing districts to favor a certain political party. 'I saw what Gov. Abbott did today … These guys are not f---ing around,' Newsom said. 'They're playing by a different set of rules … We've been playing fair but it made me question that entire program. These guys are going to do everything in their power to maintain their power.' Newsom added that it's imperative for his party to take back control of the House of Representatives. Currently, Republicans hold 220 seats in the House compared to Democrats' 212, a number that shrunk in recent months after three Democrats died in office, leaving vacancies. But that majority will be tough for the GOP to hold in the midterms, when a president's party typically has trouble holding onto seats. Newsom has become more aggressively political in recent weeks. After trying to play nice with Trump in the first months of his second presidency, Newsom abandoned those efforts last month when the president deployed National Guard troops to the streets of Los Angeles in response to protests. Since then, he has given a primetime address accusing Trump of assaulting democracy; launched a social media onslaught against the president and other Republican officials; and gone on a tour through parts of South Carolina he billed as an effort to challenge the GOP on its home turf. In a post where he included a video of his comments to the Holler, Newsom wrote: 'Texas is using a special session about emergency disaster aid to redistrict their state and cheat their way into more Congressional seats. These guys have no shame. CA is watching — and you can bet we won't stand idly by.' But California's laws constrain Newsom from responding in kind to any efforts in Texas to redraw maps to favor Republicans. Voters in California took that power from the state Legislature in 2008 and handed it to an independent redistricting commission, which draws the lines for California's congressional and state legislative districts. Though Newsom is correct that Democrats dominate the Legislature, they do not dominate the redistricting commission. By law, the commission comprises five Democrats, five Republicans and four commissioners not affiliated with either party. Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College who serves as one of the Democratic commissioners, said the governor doesn't have any power over the commission's activities and can't force it to draw new maps in Democrats' favor. 'In this national context, I can understand the governor's inclination to want to retaliate,' she said. 'However the people of California have made it clear at the ballot that the governor does not have that power.' California's system is somewhat unusual — in most states, the parties can wield significant influence over the redistricting process, especially in places where one party controls state government. 'I certainly understand and recognize that the balance of power hinges on redistricting, and when all states are not playing fair, the fact that California does puts Democrats at a disadvantage,' Sadhwani said.
Wall Street Journal
10 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump's Immigration Reform Opportunity
Only Nixon could go to China, and maybe only Trump can finally get a polarized Congress to pass real immigration reform. Who knows whether he will try, but the opportunity is there, as public opinion shifts in response to the President's border success and mass deportation efforts. 'With illegal border crossings down sharply this year, fewer Americans than in June 2024 back hard-line border enforcement measures,' Gallup said Friday, 'while more favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.' Only 30% of Americans now favor decreasing immigration, down from 55% amid President Biden's border mess. Asked if immigration is good or bad for the country, 79% of U.S. adults say good, which is Gallup's record high. Offering citizenship to 'Dreamers,' those brought to the U.S. illegally as children, is favored by 85%, up four points in the past year. By the way, that includes 71% of Republicans and 85% of independents. Overall support for 'deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally' has fallen to 38%, down nine points. This may signal a public backlash amid news reports about Immigration and Customs Enforcement's nationwide raids on workplaces and public spaces that have led to protests. Americans want a country of laws and opposed President Biden's open-borders chaos. But they also are compassionate, don't want to break up families, and shrink from harsh roundup tactics.
Wall Street Journal
10 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Sends a New Message to Putin
It took six months, but President Trump seems to have concluded that Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace in Ukraine. The Russian will have a 'lovely' talk with the President 'and then the missiles go off that night,' Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday. This new realism is a welcome change from Mr. Trump's previous strategy of leaning only on Ukraine and has a better chance of getting a cease-fire. The best news from Monday's White House meeting is that the free world will continue to arm Ukraine against Mr. Putin's ravages. 'In a nutshell, we're going to make top of the line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO' for Ukraine, Mr. Trump said while appearing with alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte. 'That might also mean that countries will move equipment fast into Ukraine and then the U.S. later backfilling it,' Mr. Rutte added, 'because speed is of the essence here.' Some Patriot air-defense missiles could move into Ukraine within days, and they will no doubt be of immediate help. As our Jillian Melchior reported from Kyiv on Monday, Mr. Putin has escalated his aerial assault on Ukraine's cities with ever-more attack drones and missiles. There is no military purpose for this, as Mr. Rutte said at the White House, except killing civilians to break Ukrainian morale.
