The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is pleased to announce that the charges on Alejandro Orellana have been dropped!
This is a huge win for protesters and activists everywhere, as well as the immigrants’ rights movements in the U.S. and everyone who opposes Trump’s deportation policy. His bogus federal charges of conspiring to commit civil disorder and aiding and abetting civil disorder were a travesty to civil liberties in the U.S. and to our First Amendment right to protest. The CSFR is happy and proud to have been part of the movement to expose and defeat that.
This outcome comes as a result of a national defense campaign to popularize Orellana’s case. The Trump administration and U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli tried to demonize Orellana with allegations of giving out PPE, or face shields, to protesters during the Los Angeles movement against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in June. They tried to put Orellana behind bars for up to five years for this “crime.”
They failed to realize that the public viewed Trump, ICE and the National Guard as the real criminals for violating due process and for kidnapping and detaining immigrant workers, parents and children. Eventually, it became clear as we organized that the public’s sympathy lay largely with Orellana and not with ICE. In the end, the prosecution had to face the music: They had no case.
Orellana’s case showed us the importance of being public with your cause, name and charges; the importance of organizing people to your court appearances to show support for you; and the importance of having a lawyer who will work hard to defend you even if it means going to trial. These were lessons learned during the campaign of the Tampa 5, Carlos Montes and the Anti-War 23, and we learned them all over again in the defense of Orellana.
If you find yourself charged unduly for exercising your First Amendment rights to protest, you need to speak out. Learn from the example of the protesters in Los Angeles, and don’t be afraid to say no and to stand up for yourself and for your neighbor.
You have the right to object to injustice, to act to stop it and to defend yourself if unjust charges come. Don’t let anything stop you from being a part of the movements, never speak to the FBI, and never give in to fear. Just like Orellana, if we organize, we can win!