View this email in your browser ([link removed])


** Don’t Overlook the Union Factor in California’s Chaos
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear John,

All social movements require a patron saint. Californians who support illegal immigration believe they have theirs: David Huerta, president of the state’s Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

Federal officers in Los Angeles arrested Huerta during a protest outside a business where ICE was executing a search warrant Friday — just one skirmish in what U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called “a coordinated” campaign of violence aimed at federal officers executing search warrants. Video seems to show ([link removed]) that Huerta was part of a group attempting to block the driveway at a federal detention center. At one point in the chaotic scene, officers push Huerta and others to clear a path for an ICE vehicle. Huerta resists, then stumbles, falls, and appears to hit his head on a curb — but continues fighting with officers. He was reportedly pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, and taken to a hospital before being moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Crowds immediately attacked that building, with protesters spray-painting its walls with “Abolish ICE,” “F*** ICE,” and “Burn Prisons.”

Huerta is charged with conspiracy to impede an officer, which can carry up to six years in prison. Following his arraignment Monday, he was released on a $50,000 appearance bond. By then, he was already being hailed as a hero.

“Let’s be clear,” the Service Employees International Union posted on X. “ICE injured and detained the president of SEIU California for peacefully observing. ICE picked the wrong side. The wrong state. The wrong person and the wrong union. David Huerta stood up. And 750,000 SEIU workers are standing with him.”

Revealing the political instincts that propelled his rise to the top of California’s most radical government union, Huerta declared himself a victim of police violence and a representative of something universal.

“What happened to me is not about me,” he said in an SEIU statement released Sunday. “This is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice.”

Like most elected officials in California who owe their jobs to SEIU and other government unions, Governor Gavin Newsom ([link removed]) immediately reposted SEIU’s claim, adding that Huerta “is a respected leader, patriot and advocate for working people. No one should ever be harmed for witnessing government action.” Perhaps hoping to establish Huerta’s legal defense, Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor whose 2022 campaign won an early SEIU endorsement ([link removed]) , blamed law enforcement: “I know what really impacted him the most was the emotional trauma of watching kids and parents and kids being separated. I think that hit him emotionally very hard. The point is that what happened today is just outrageous.” Kamala Harris ([link removed]) took a break from dithering
about a 2026 gubernatorial run to declare herself “appalled” at “the Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”

By then, it seemed everyone on the left had joined in. A Los Angeles Times ([link removed]) reporter was out first with “ICE arrested a California union leader. Does Trump understand what that means?” CalMatters ([link removed]) ran with “‘Everybody stood up’: Why a union leader’s arrest galvanized California Democrats on immigration.” And then came the unions themselves — including United Farm Workers ([link removed]) , the Los Angeles teachers union ([link removed]) , the California Federation of Labor ([link removed]) , and college
professors ([link removed]) . Even the Screen Actors Guild ([link removed]) got in on the theater.

All of them argued that David Huerta has, since the 1990s, simply defended the stranger in our midst — the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But it was left to the New York Times to note a deeper truth: that California’s private and public-sector unions are losing ground, and the Los Angeles riots are a marketing opportunity.

“Organized labor's embrace of immigrants' rights is also a numbers game, the Times observed ([link removed]) . "In California and many other parts of the country, immigrants — documented and undocumented — dominate the work force, especially in the service sector.

That’s especially true of SEIU. Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, the union’s membership — and therefore its revenue — has been nearly halved ([link removed]) . Always an explicit part of the union’s business plan, illegal immigrants are now more important than ever.

A Brief History of SEIU’s Business Model

SEIU grasped that business opportunity long before other labor organizers, launching its Justice for Janitors Los Angeles campaign in 1988. When it came to organizing custodial workers in the city’s hotels, Huerta and SEIU did not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.

Since then, organizing even illegal immigrants became the union’s growth strategy and its brand. Operating as a kind of human-trafficking organization that also functions as a labor union, SEIU recruits, even coerces ([link removed]) , those illegal immigrants to pay SEIU membership dues in exchange for the promise of higher wages, of course, but also legal protection in the face of immigration enforcement.

“Our movement-building power for working people isn’t just for those who have called the U.S. their home since birth. It’s for everyone,” the union declares. ([link removed]) “We know that when greedy corporations succeed in dividing us by immigration status, race, and/or any other category, it’s only those corporations that win.”

By 2015, SEIU’s strategy had become standard operating procedure for the state Democratic Party. The union co-hosted townhalls with then–state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. The purpose: to rally support for the idea that illegal immigration is really quite legal if looked at properly. Harris, the state’s top law enforcement officer, offered her presence as proof that the state itself supported illegal immigration; shortly after, SEIU endorsed her successful campaign for U.S. Senate. SEIU’s presenter in the townhall effort was its “SEIU United Long-Term Care President” Laphonza Butler. ([link removed]) When Harris left the U.S. Senate to serve as Joe Biden’s vice president in 2021, Newsom appointed Butler to replace her.

In 2017, the first year of Trump’s first term, SEIU helped write and lobby for passage of the bill that made California a sanctuary state. The predicate was, of course, Trump himself — and every American who voted for him.

“In the face of anti-immigrant attacks and white nationalist hate, California has again made its mark as the standard-bearer of the true American Dream, one based on opportunity, inclusion, and respect,” a top SEIU official said at the time ([link removed]) . “The passage of SB 54 sends a clear message to our immigrant family members, neighbors, and co-workers: we will do everything in our power to defend you. Going to work to put food on the table, dropping your children off at school, or taking them to the doctor should not put you at risk of having your family forever ripped apart. This is basic human decency, and it is sad that we must fight for it, but we are — and we will continue to do so.”

SEIU followed that with the passage of AB 450, the “Immigrant Worker Protection Act.” Refusing to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, the bill was Orwellian doublespeak. The state assemblymember recruited to carry AB 450 said it merely “offers employers clarity about what to do when ICE agents target their places of business with indiscriminate raids.” In fact, it required employers to function as SEIU’s partner in the protection racket. ([link removed]) Signed by Governor Jerry Brown and implemented just two months after Trump took office in January 2017, the law requires that California companies give their employees “written notice within 24 hours of the employer receiving notice of immigration worksite enforcement actions” and send that same information to the state labor commissioner. It prohibits
employers from asking employees for proof of citizenship, unless they receive permission from the state. Failure to comply is punishable by civil penalties of up to $25,000 for each violation.

In 2022, having failed for decades to organize workers in the fast-food industry, SEIU persuaded state lawmakers and the governor to establish the state’s first government-run union. They called it the Fast-Food Council. Comprising SEIU representatives, politically aligned Democrats appointed by the governor, two SEIU-supported state lawmakers, and a minority bloc of willing corporate franchisors, the Council has absolute power to set industry wages and work rules, including a rule that bars fast-food employers from inquiring into the immigration status ([link removed]) of employees and applicants. Just a month ago ([link removed]) , SEIU led a demonstration outside Los Angeles City Hall “to discuss a report that found nearly two-thirds of California’s fast-food workers who responded to a survey do not know that all
workers — regardless of immigration status — can file workplace-related complaints, claims or lawsuits.”

Following Trump’s November 2024 win, SEIU returned to the barricades. In November, it backed Newsom’s “emergency funding ([link removed]) ” of nonprofits that work with SEIU to oppose federal law enforcement and provide pro bono legal support for illegal aliens. It ran point on organizing the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network ([link removed]) , a coalition of “immigrant rights advocates,” religious leaders, and union activists working “to counter the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration.” One member of that coalition runs the phone tree ([link removed]) activists used to report the presence of ICE officials on Friday. Other coalition members set up surveillance teams
([link removed]) to monitor federal law enforcement. In May, in Irvine, a university town just south of L.A., ICE officials surrounded a suburban home from which they believe an activist had doxed ICE agents ([link removed]) — publishing their personal information on flyers posted throughout Los Angeles.

It Didn’t Have to Be This Way

In 1994, 59 percent of California voters supported Proposition 187, Governor Pete Wilson’s proposal to prohibit the distribution of state benefits to illegal immigrants. Five years later, a federal judge accepted the Clinton administration’s claim that Prop. 187 violated the federal government’s sovereignty ([link removed]) over border security. Call that ironic.

Since then, California has opened wider the door to illegal immigrants, seducing them with the promise of work for those who want it, of course, but also public benefits, including housing and food assistance, education, and medical care. Elected officials have earned campaign contributions and votes for making that possible. The number of illegal immigrants has swelled.

It’s a measure of the state’s rapid devolution that two California governors, Brown and Newsom, expanded Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants, the very opposite of Proposition 187.

In 2016, SEIU threw its support behind a state “Health4All Kids” initiative, extending Medicaid coverage to undocumented children. With the camel’s proboscis under the tent, SEIU slowly smuggled in the entire dromedary — extending coverage to “young adults” up to 26 years old in 2020, and then to adults over 50 in 2022. In 2024, Newsom included all illegal aliens at an annual cost of some $10 billion.

It was a win-win for Huerta. Newsom’s Medicaid expansion offered yet another inducement to enter the U.S. illegally. But expanding Medicaid to all illegal immigrants also created greater demand for in-home health care workers — workers, including family members or friends of the Medicaid recipient, represented by David Huerta’s SEIU.

Many on the left applauded Newsom for this bold departure from his fiduciary and constitutional responsibilities. But it was Huerta who rightly claimed the credit ([link removed].) .

“Healthcare justice and immigrant justice are core values of SEIU members,” he said in a statement. “Passing Health for All is the gold standard for inclusion in healthcare, an achievement that the rest of the nation can look to. I am proud of California’s progress toward inclusion of immigrant workers and our families in our healthcare system, and I’m especially proud that SEIU members in California and our allies fought so hard and for so many years to accomplish this.”

Union dollars are essential to Democrats’ control of the state, and illegal immigration is central to union growth. David Huerta is no saint. But he is clearly a marketing and political genius.

— This article by California Policy Center president Will Swaim was originally published by National Review. ([link removed])
UPDATE: SEIU Quickly Leverages Riots to Outflank Newsom on Budget Battle

Now it’s clear that SEIU is already leveraging the riots ([link removed]) — and the arrest of Huerta — to wrangle a big win in the state legislature.

“The Legislature’s Monday budget plan included some welcomed news to state workers: a flat-out rejection of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to freeze state workers’ salaries,” the Sacramento Bee reports. ([link removed])

“At a time when labor unions are under attack, we applaud and thank the State Legislature for standing with state employees,” Anica Walls, Service Employees International Union Local 1000’s president, said in a statement.
New Podcast ()
[link removed]


** Radio Free California #393: The Retreat of the California Resistance
------------------------------------------------------------

On this week's podcast with CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board member David Bahnsen: From Gov. Gavin Newsom to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, state officials ask Californians to ignore the evidence of their eyes and blame Trump for weekend rioting. Bonuses! Attorney Julie Hamill details the sports showdown between the Trump administration and California, and “Great Books” podcaster John Miller discusses the life and times of Western writer and Californian Louis L’Amour. Listen now. ([link removed])

SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])

============================================================

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER

The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians through limited government and individual liberty.

Learn more at ** CaliforniaPolicyCenter.org ([link removed])
.
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
Copyright © 2025 California Policy Center, All rights reserved.
We send periodic updates to those who opted in on californiapolicycenter.org

Our mailing address is:
California Policy Center
18002 Irvine Blvd Ste 108
Tustin, CA 92780-3321
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]