It was the morning of June 9, and Genie Kastrup, president of Service Employees Local 1, stood in front of Chicago’s Daley Plaza and bellowed into a microphone. “What is happening right now is about silencing voices,” she said, flanked by members of her union holding signs that read “Free David Huerta.”
“It’s about dividing working people,” she continued. “It’s about dividing our communities against the have and have nots. It is abusing power.”
The demonstration was one of 37 taking place that day across the country to protest the June 6 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assault and detention of Huerta, the president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West. Huerta had shown up to defend members of his Los Angeles community from federal raids.
