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DOJ Indicts East LA Community Defender Accused of Giving Face Shields to Anti-ICE Protesters
One group asserted that Alejandro Orellana "has done nothing wrong; speaking out against ICE terror, raids, and deportations is not a crime, protesting is not a crime!"
Jul 03, 2025
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted a longtime immigrant rights defender who allegedly distributed items including face shields and bottles of water to demonstrators during a downtown Los Angeles protest last month against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Alejandro Orellana, 29, of East Los Angeles was indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders. According to federal prosecutors, Orellana and others met on June 9 and loaded his Ford pickup truck with face shields, masks, bottles of water, and other items and then drove to a protest and handed out the items.
Orellana was arrested during a June 12 raid by FBI agents backed by National Guard troops and county law enforcement on his family home in East L.A. According to Los Angeles Public Press, federal agents executed a search warrant two weeks later against fellow activist Verita Topete, seizing her phone and leaving her bruised.
At a June 27 press conference at Ruben F. Salazar Park in East Los Angeles, Orellana thanked "friends, family, community, and allies" for their support.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told Fox News at the time of Orellana's arrest that "we have made it a huge priority to try to identify, locate, and arrest those who are involved in organizing, supporting, funding, or facilitating these riots."
If fully convicted, Orellana—a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with no criminal record—could face up to five years behind bars.
Orellana and Topete are members of Centro CSO, a Chicano-led civil rights group that is no stranger to state surveillance and repression. Founded in 1947 by Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and Edward Roybal—who was later elected to the Los Angeles City Council and then the U.S. House of Representatives—the group was originally known as Community Service Organization (CSO).
Notable CSO members have included César Chávez and Dolores Huerta of United Farm Workers, both of whom were targeted for FBI surveillance under longtime Director J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program.
Centro CSO was born out of CSO in the 2000s to "fight against the war in Iraq, and military recruiters, and also the fight for public education," longtime member Carlos Montes told Los Angeles Public Press. Another Centro CSO member, Sammy Carrera, told the outlet that the arrest of Orellana and seizure of Topete's phone are a continuation of state suppression of CSO.
"I don't think they anticipated such an organized community that was willing to defend our neighbors, our family members, and so they're scrambling to see, you know, see how they can smash us to stop, you, these rebellions that are being organized," Carrera said of the government's response to the anti-ICE protests.
Responding to Orellana's arrest, the Los Angeles-based Legalization 4 All (L4A) Network said last week: "Alejandro has done nothing wrong; speaking out against ICE terror, raids, and deportations is not a crime, protesting is not a crime! As Chicanos, Mexicanos, Centroamericanos around the country are being racially profiled and viciously kidnapped, activists like Alejandro have every right to speak out."
"Protesting is not a crime, fighting against ICE terror is not a crime! Legalization for all and stop the ICE raids now!" L4A added.
Noting the numerous documented injuries suffered by anti-ICE protesters at the hands of police and the Los Angeles Police Department's long history of spying on and repressing civil rights defenders, attorney Peter Bibring told Los Angeles Public Press that "taking protective measures isn't a sign of criminal activity, it's common sense."
Centro CSO has been organizing events in support of Orellana, including a planned press conference at 4:30 pm Thursday at the Edward Roybal Federal Building and a Saturday rally in La Placita Olvera.
"Our movement will continue, even if they obtain warrants to confiscate our electronic devices," Carrera said at the June 27 press conference. "Our movement will continue, even if they bring in the National Guard to raid our members. Our movement will continue. Drop the charges now!"
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Claiming ‘Extreme Power’ of President, Trump Says He Will Close US Border by Fiat
"This is what the Supreme Court has created by overthrowing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence," said one progressive critic of the GOP nominee's remarks.
Oct 22, 2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign said Tuesday that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, would be "unchecked" and "unhinged" in a potential second term, pointing to his comments at the roundtable with Latino leaders in which he said he would use "extreme power" to close the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump suggested that he opposed a bipartisan border bill earlier this year—and pushed Republicans in Congress to vote against it—because it was a "phony bill" that was unnecessary to stop immigrants from entering the U.S. through the southern border.
A president can unilaterally close the border, the Republican nominee claimed.
"It was a horrible bill, stupid bill," said Trump. "It's called extreme power. You have extreme power [as president]... You say, 'Close the border,' and the border's closed. That's it, very simple."
Harris has said she would push for the passage of the bipartisan legislation, which would expand capacity for migrant detention, restrict standards for asylum claims, and allow the president to shut down the border if crossings by undocumented immigrants reached a certain threshold. Republicans rejected the bill, saying it would worsen a so-called "border catastrophe."
Rights advocates have called on Democrats to push for sufficient funding to process asylum claims, resources for programs to assist unaccompanied children, international assistance to reduce forced migration, and other "effective, fair, and compassionate" solutions.
Trump's pledge to use "extreme power" to shut down the border, said Charles Idelson of National Nurses United, "is what the Supreme Court has created by overthrowing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."
"A second Trump term poses too big a risk for America to take."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this summer in a case involving Trump that a president is entitled to "absolute immunity" for "official acts" taken while in office.
The former president said late last year that if he wins a second term, he would be a dictator only on "Day One" of his presidency, allowing him to unilaterally shut down the southern border and expand fossil fuel drilling.
"A second Trump term poses too big a risk for America to take," said Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign. "An unhinged and unstable Donald Trump wants to purge the government of public servants to replace them with loyalists who will help him pursue unchecked 'extreme power' that he could use against his fellow Americans, who he calls 'the enemy from within.' This has major consequences for Americans' lives and freedoms."
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Watch: Visual Disgust After Trump Calls Violent January 6 Insurrection 'Day of Love'
"If everyone in America watched this two-minute clip, Trump would go down in a landslide," said climate leader Bill McKIbben.
Oct 17, 2024
Audience members at a town hall hosted by the largest Spanish-language network in the United States, Univision, did not hide their reactions to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's comments on the violent riot he urged his supporters to take part in on January 6, 2021—with several voters appearing perplexed as the former president called the attack on the Capitol a "day of love."
Ramiro González, a construction worker based in Tampa, Florida, said he voted for Trump in the past and was formerly registered as a Republican, but told the former president that his "action and inaction" regarding January 6 was "a little disturbing."
"What happened during January 6, and the fact that you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol," said González.
Trump gave a speech in Washington D.C. on January 6 and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, where members of Congress were certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
The day followed weeks of lies and legal challenges from the Trump campaign and the then-president's allies, who insisted that the election had been rigged, illegal votes had been counted, and voting machines had been hacked, and demanded recounts in several states—none of which found evidence of the claims.
In his answer to González, Trump suggested that his repeated lies about the security of the election had nothing to do with the attempted insurrection that took place on January 6.
"You had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington," said Trump. "They didn't come because of me, they came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election."
Univision's camera panned over a section of the audience as Trump replied to González, showing one woman visibly shocked as the former president claimed "no one was killed" in the riot—right after he mentioned the death of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who has fatally shot at the Capitol. Officials have linked five deaths to the attack.
González also appeared incredulous after Trump called January 6 "a day of love."
"This was the first attack on the Capitol in history by U.S. citizens and he calls it a day of love," said U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). "I was there. It was a day of terror. Not just for us who were there. But for the American people. We CANNOT let this guy be back in the White House again."
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign posted a compilation video of other reactions from audience members as Trump spoke about the climate and his environmental policies.
Audience members at the town hall were credited by some political observers as giving a "masterclass" in questioning the former president. A farmworker named Jorge Velásquez asked about Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and pointed out that doing so would severely impact the agricultural labor force, asking how the plan would affect food prices.
"This Univision audience asked the best questions of the campaign," said progressive news outlet The Tennessee Holler on social media.
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