Listen: L.A. ICE Bust Sends SEIU USWW Pres. Huerta to the Hospital/Plus More

Heavily-armed police take to the streets in Los Angeles. Photo/Laura Jedeed

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By Bob Hennelly

The Trump administration sparked community protests in Los Angeles over the weekend after sending squads of military gear-equipped ICE agents on high-profile raids throughout the city including a local Home Depot where many day laborers typically gather for work.  

The heavily-armed ICE agents, on an invasion-like footing, used  flash bang grenades to disperse the ensuing crowds. At one such location, SEIU USWW President David Huerta was assaulted while he was being arrested by the ICE agents and had to be hospitalized. He was later released from the hospital—but remained in custody. 

Here in NYC, United University Professionals [UUP] President Fred Kowal called Huerta’s arrest “outrageous” and “appalling.”

“The unlawful arrest of our union brother, David Huerta, is outrageous and appalling,” Kowal said in a statement. “We condemn his arrest in the strongest possible terms and join the AFL-CIO and other unions in calling for his immediate release.”

Huerta was ultimately released on Monday, but still faces charges.

The escalation of ICE tactics in L.A. represented an expansion of multiple raids seen around the nation on workplaces, restaurants—and even court houses where immigrants had been ordered to appear. 

As the L.A. street protests grew in intensity, President Trump nationalized 2,000 members of the California National Guard, over the objection of California Governor Gavin Newsom who called the move "illegal, immoral and unconstitutional."

Trump accused Newsom of being incompetent and says he wants the military to be deployed. Tom Homan, who leads ICE, threatened to arrest any local elected officials who he deemed interfering with his agency's ongoing mass deportation plans. 

Street protests in L.A. continued even as the Los Angeles Police declared an unlawful assembly in all of downtown to quell protests that became violent and shutdown major highways. Images of protestors waving Mexican national flags and cars on fire were used by Trump supporters as justification for President Trump's nationalizing the National Guard, something he refused to do on January 6th when his supporters seized the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election. 

At least four people died in the assault on the U.S. Capital. Four police officers also committed suicide in the wake of the melee.

On this week’s episode of “We Decide: America at the Crossroads 2025 with Jenna Flanagan, Washington D.C.-based investigative reporter Dave Levintal joins NYC-based freelance journalist Laura Jedeed to discuss the latest on the L.A. uprising. Jadeed was on the scene and was able to help document it. 

We also check in with Stetson University Professor Ciara Torres Spelliscy, an expert on oligarchy, campaign finance, and dark money, who reflects on the Trump/Musk break-up and the wreckage left behind.

Civil rights attorney Ron Kuby and Gloria Marshall Browne, a professor in Constitutional Law at John Jay College and author of the book “A Protest History of the United States,” join this week’s show, as well. 

We also have our weekly dispatch from Pacifica’s editor-at-large Lisa Loving with a report about what happens now to the DNA database that 23 and Me created after it was sold off in bankruptcy court to a biotech multinational. Lisa talks with JB Branch, the Big tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division.

Listen to the entire show below: 

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include Huerta’s release from custody.