Progressive Student Union at Grand Valley State University stands with Alejandro Orellana

Solidarity Statement also linked on Instagram

On June 12, Alejandro Orellana, an immigrant rights activist and leader in East Los Angeles’ Centro Community Service Organization (Centro CSO) was raided by the FBI and arrested in Boyle Heights, following his participation in anti-ICE protests. Agents seized his electronics, arrested him and took him into federal custody. It took a press conference and protest before he was released the next day. He is now facing two sham federal charges, one of which is one count of “conspiracy to commit civil disorder,” which carries up to 5 years in prison. Orellana will have his preliminary hearing and first court appearance Friday, June 27.

Progressive Student Union at Grand Valley State University, along with National Students for a Democratic Society, demands Orellana’s charges be dropped immediately. He has been a leading member of the Chicano-led organization Centro CSO for over 10 years, and has been public and forthright in organizing against ICE raids and the Trump administrations. We believe that it is for this reason and no other that he is being targeted.

Protesting is not a crime. It is people like Orellana, not the Trump administration and his agents, who are on the right side of history. Trump has unleashed a wave of terror upon immigrants in this country by deploying the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles, and sending ICE agents to abduct human beings across the country. This assault includes immigrant students, international students and activists at universities around the United States whose administrations collaborate with ICE and the FBI.

To protect our freedom of speech, along with our right to protest ICE raids and the Trump administration, we believe it’s essential to defend Orellana. We stand with him and all those resisting Trump’s attacks, especially on immigrants, international students, Chicanos and Latinx people.

Join us in demanding all charges against Orellana be dropped by calling U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli at (213) 894-2400 ahead of his June 27 court appearance.

End FBI persecution of immigrant rights activists!

Stop the deportations and ICE raids!