On August 7 Pre-Trial Hearing Date, National Day of Protest to Drop the Charges on Alejandro Orellana! Protesting ICE Is Not a Crime!

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is calling on organizations across the US to join a national day of action on August 7 and to demand that the charges on Alejandro Orellana be dropped. There is no crime in protesting ICE and deportations, protecting protesters, and speaking out against Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

On August 7, Alejandro Orellana, an immigrants rights activist and leader in Centro Community Service Organization in East Los Angeles, will have his final pre-trial hearing. He currently faces two bogus federal charges, one of conspiracy and another to commit disorder, and is looking at up to five years in prison for protesting ICE raids in LA. The trial itself will begin on August 26.

The prosecutor and law enforcement allege that Orellana drove a truck carrying personal protective equipment (PPE) and face shields to anti-ICE protests and that this constitutes a conspiracy to commit a crime. But in our view, there is nothing wrong with bringing face shields to protests while police are shooting rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds.

In multiple instances, police have taken out protesters’ eyes with rubber bullets. Federal agents have been flouting due process, raiding workplaces and parking lots, and arresting hundreds of immigrant workers, like the 200 immigrants arrested off farms in Camarillo, California, while police brutalize protesters.

Orellana has done nothing wrong. He has dedicated over 10 years of his life to demanding justice for Chicanos and Latinos who were killed by police or who were deported. He has opposed unjust wars, and he has spoken up again and again for what is right. He represents a political threat to the Trump administration, and that is the sole reason he is being targeted.

On the other hand, the US Attorney Bilal Essayli represents the opposite. He is pursuing charges against other anti-ICE protesters, including the union president of the SEIU California, David Huerta. Huerta was held in custody on a $50,000 bail. Essayli defended Trump’s decision to use the California National Guard to quell the LA protests. Essayli carries out the MAGA agenda full-force, and he is Trump’s man in California.

It is in the interest of everyone who believes in civil liberties, the right to free speech, and the right to freedom of assembly, to demand that the charges on Orellana be dropped. Neither protesting Trump, nor ICE, nor deportations, should ever be a crime.

On August 7, we are asking everyone to:

1) Organize a protest for August 7 at a federal building, federal courthouse, or local ICE office, to demand that the US government drop the charges on Alejandro Orellana.