Worker Organizer Abducted By Federal Agents in Minnesota

Our interview followed a judge’s ruling in the District Court of Minnesota on Wednesday that denied and dismissed Orozco Verdusco’s habeas corpus petition challenging his unlawful detention.

Orozco Verdusco organizes with Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha (CTUL), a worker center based in Minneapolis that has recently mobilized against federal immigration agents’ abduction of construction workers from their job sites. He is also a member of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), which advocates for the rights of Latino workers, and part of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, which opposes unjust immigration policies. 

His organizations and wider community, deeply rattled by his detention for about a month, have been demanding his immediate release. Dozens of organizations and individuals have written letters of support, and a petition ​“to demand his immediate release and stop his deportation” has more than 3,000 signatures. 

Orozco Verdusco was abducted in the Trump administration’s so-called ​“Operation Metro Surge,” where, since December, thousands of masked, armed federal agents have descended on Minnesota. They have raided homes and childcare centers, abducted young children, tear gassed high school students, and killed two residents and observers, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

While many of the people targeted are not in unions or worker organizations, several have been. Minnesota unions UNITE HERE Local 17 and SEIU Local 26 have both seen members abducted, including people who have led important worker organizing. And federal agents have targeted labor leaders across the country, from day laborer leader Willian Giménez González in Chicago to SEIU California President David Huerta in Los Angeles. 

Orozco Verdusco, who goes by ​“Paco,” is originally from Mexico and has lived in the United States for 20 years. He was taken the morning of January 9 on the way to work, shortly after leaving his home in Coon Rapids, about a 25-minute drive north of Minneapolis. His son says he first found out when his uncle called and instructed him to go pick up his father’s car. 

Getting the vehicle was unsettling, he says. ​“Everything looked in order. It was just eerie to have to get in the car, drive it back to my house, knowing that I don’t know when I’m going to be seeing my dad again.”

Merle Payne, co-director of CTUL, said ​“he came into CTUL eight or nine years ago as a construction worker who had seen a lot of wage theft and a lot of abuse of workers’ rights and had just a deep passion for justice and people being treated fairly in the workplace.”. 

“He learned about his rights and was able to recover wages in his own situation,” Payne said, ​“and then, as he learned about his rights, he wanted to teach others about it, and that’s really what he dedicated his time towards.” 

“As part of his collective work around wage theft over the years, people have been able to recover over $6 million in stolen wages, and he’s been one of the core leaders in driving and making that happen,” Payne says. ​“His work was crucial in bringing forward the first successfully prosecuted labor trafficking case in construction in the state. He played a critical role in supporting workers to escape the trafficking and be able to come forward and bring that case to justice.”

“The Trump administration is using the excuse of chasing fraud and who they refer to as criminals and that’s not actually what’s happening,” says Payne.

After he was taken, Orozco Verdusco was sent to Camp East Montana, in El Paso, where guards recently killed a Cuban immigrant by choking him, as a witness recounted. The detention center has been plagued by accusations of violent assault and poor conditions, including food shortages that leave people taking turns eating. While there, Orozco Verdusco’s attorney, Marisa Tillman, says he was denied the right to a video call with his lawyers at least three times. 

“It took me looking for as many emails as I could of people at Camp East Montana, and emailing them outside of the system, to jostle it for them to actually schedule an appointment,” said Tillman, a consultant in the case for Prokosch Law.

Orozco Guzman, his son, works as a legal assistant for the state of Minnesota, and has spoken with his father a few times after the abduction.

“He’s been saying that he’s okay,” Orozco Guzman says. ​“But with each call, his voice just sounds a little sadder and sadder.”

Orozco Guzman describes their family as tight-knit and the abduction is affecting everyone. Orozco Guzman’s mother has been staying with him and his wife at their home in a Twin Cities suburb ever since the abduction, and for her, ​“each day is harder than the previous,” her son says.

Orozco Guzman says his mother is trying to be optimistic, but seems distraught and distracted, and will sometimes repeat herself without realizing it. ““I can tell it’s weighing on her. It’s weighing on me. It’s weighing on all of us. Those first couple days I caught myself repeating things I had already said, thinking I hadn’t said them, just because this has all jumbled up our minds.”

Orozco Guzman said it’s always been his father’s dream to own a home, and that came true last summer. ​“He finally bought his house in the suburbs. He’s been a lifelong carpenter, and he finally bought a house.”

Grecia Palomar, president of the Twin Cities chapter of LCLAA, wrote a letter of support for Orozco Verdusco, addressed to the immigration judge. ​“He has brought workers from the community to our meetings to speak directly about workplace conditions and to learn about the importance of unions, collective bargaining, and worker protections,” she writes. ​“His ability to connect with workers, explain complex labor issues clearly, and inspire trust has had an admirable and meaningful impact on our outreach efforts.”

District of Minnesota Judge Paul A. Magnuson, in denying the habeas corpus petition, ​“has determined he agrees with what Trump’s government has decided, that all immigrants who arrive in the United States without inspection fall under mandatory detention, meaning they’re not even allowed a bond hearing,” Tillman explains. 

“In the decision, he even says that most of his fellow judges don’t agree with him on that point, and the majority of Minnesota judges are approving these petitions, at the very least ordering a bond hearing, and often ordering straight release.”

Tillman says the judge’s decision is ​“discouraging,” because it means that Orozco Verdusco has to decide between fighting for his release back to his home from detention by, for example, trying for another habeas corpus petition in New Mexico, where he is currently detained, or leaving the country, which means he would no longer be locked up, but would potentially be unable to return to his family in the United States for 10 years.

“So we’re working with him now to kind of see what he prefers to do,” says Tillman, who has a personal connection to his case: She is the sister of Orozco Guzman’s wife. ​“I’m not incarcerated, so I can’t make the decision. None of us can make that decision for him, because we can’t imagine what it’s like in there.”

Orozco Guzman says of his father, ​“He’s always believed in the American dream, much more than I have.”

This article is a joint publication of In These Times and Workday Magazine, a nonprofit newsroom devoted to holding the powerful accountable through the perspective of workers.