Los Angeles County Labor Movement Demands Trump Administration Release our Union Siblings Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Rümeysa Öztürk

LOS ANGELES- Representing over 800,000 union members across Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO joins workers and union members in demanding the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Rümeysa Öztürk.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a father and an International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) apprentice who works hard to play by the rules and earn an honest day’s pay for his work.

Abrego Garcia, who hasn’t been charged or convicted of any crime, has been unlawfully detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in El Salvador. In defiance of the United States Supreme Court, the Trump Administration refuses to bring Kilmar home.

Rümeysa Öztürk is a graduate student at Tufts University and a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509 member, who was snatched by masked federal immigration authorities on her way to Ramadan services. Her arrest, with no charges filed, is yet another chilling example of this administration’s efforts to use immigration actions to target and silence dissenters.

“This administration wants to erase black people; they are deporting immigrants, and they want to keep harming our most vulnerable communities,” said Yvonne Wheeler, President of the LA County Federation of Labor, “an injury to one is an injury to all, and we need to come together as one labor movement and demand an end to the continued assault on innocent working people.”

The working people of Los Angeles County demand: “Bring Kilmar home and free Rümeysa immediately.”