Alleged LA riot leader's father slams him for handing out supplies to anti-ICE protesters

The dad of a young union worker and socialist activist arrested by the FBI for handing out face shields to dozens of LA rioters said his son isn't a criminal — but slammed him for supplying the anti-ICE riots, and leading the feds to bust down the door of their family home.
Francisco Orellana's reaction to seeing his son Alejandro 'Alex' Orellana driving a truck loaded with supplies for protesters was: 'What the f–k are you doing?'
The elder Orellana, a US citizen who moved to the US in the 1970s, told The Post the feds handcuffed the whole family in pursuit of his son on Thursday morning, smashing in the front door of their Los Angeles house and breaking a window on his truck.
10 Alejandro 'Alex' Orellana was arrested after passing out face shields to LA rioters.
USAttyEssayli/X
10 The FBI raided Orellana's LA house where he lives with his parents and sibling.
Courtesy of Francisco Orellana
The younger Orellana was busted on charges of conspiracy to commit civil disorders, US Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said.
Images taken at the riot show dozens of protesters running up to a truck Alex was allegedly driving to grab 'Bionic Shield' transparent masks, which are normally used at jobsites to protect workers' faces from flying debris or chemical splashes.
Francisco Orellana, a construction technician, told The Post he didn't know how his son got involved in the protests, and said he may have been in the truck because someone asked him for a favor.
'My son is a good boy … he's not a criminal. He doesn't have a bad record, he's clear,' he said.
'I saw the picture [of Alejandro in the truck], which my sister-in-law sent to my wife. I said, 'what the f–k are you doing? Why are you doing that?''
10 Boxes of face shields being passed out the back of a truck in LA.
FOX11
10 Orellana's father Francisco told The Post his son is a 'good boy' and doesn't have a criminal record — but still questioned why he would allegedly help rioters.
FOX11
He said his son told him, 'Papa, I don't think this is illegal,' but the concerned dad had his doubts.
'I said, 'it ends up being a big problem when you're giving stuff to people [who do violence]. They burned police cars, they broke windows, this is not right.' I said, 'It's illegal to [help] people fighting with the police, people fighting with immigration.'
Alex Orellana, a US Marine veteran, is a UPS worker and a shop steward for the Teamster's union who has been active for years with fighting for social justice causes — including with Centro CSO, which famously trained Cesar Chavez, according to social media posts.
One video shows him giving a May Day speech last year in black combat boots and camouflage pants.
10 Orellana's Marine uniform seen on a pile of clothes after the FBI raided his house.
Courtesy of Francisco Orellana
10 A damaged door frame in the house after the FBI raid.
Courtesy of Francisco Orellana
On June 6, he wrote gleefully for the socialist news site Fight Back! about protesters chasing down federal agents in Los Angeles and forcing them to leave the neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
The elder Orellana said he disagrees with the protesters' tactics, even though some cheered his son's alleged actions in helping them.
'Some people are thinking, 'he's helping people. He's doing a good job.' I don't think that. I tell a lot of people, 'don't go to the protests,'' he said.
10 FBI agents took the entire family's electronic devices in the raid, Francisco Orellana told The Post.
Courtesy of Francisco Orellana
10 Damage inside Orellana's house seen after the raid.
Courtesy of Francisco Orellana
He detailed the federal agents' raid on the family home, where Francisco lives with his wife and two adult sons, including Alex.
'They broke down my door, broke the window of my truck, they broke my wall. … I woke up, and I heared boom boom boom on the door. I said, 'wait, wait, wait! Let me put on my clothes, let me put on my shoes …The FBI, they arrested me, they arrested my wife, my other son,' he said.
'They go through my house. Who's going to pay for my house? Who's going to fix these things?'
Francisco said the FBI took the phones and laptops for everyone in the home and held them in custody for an hour.
10 A protester waving a Mexican-US flag in front of police officers in downtown LA on June 9, 2025.
Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
10 Police officers in riot gear blocking an on ramp to the 101 freeway in LA on June 11, 2025.
Photo byAs for his take on immigration, Francisco said law-abiding people coming into the country to work is a good thing, but condemned the many he sees as taking advantage of the system.
'It's too many people not working. Who's paying for them? You and me, and everybody working. We're paying to keep those people here,' he said, sharing a story about one of his neighbors.
'She has seven kids. They said the government pays rent, gives them money for food, everything. I told her one day, 'I am the government. They're taking that money from my check. You eat because we're working. We don't work, you don't eat,' he said.
He also spared no praise for the lefty policies of Golden State politicians, whom he blames for the current state of affairs.
'California is no good. Democratic people left the state really, really bad.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

USA Today

36 minutes ago

• USA Today

Acting NJ U.S. Attorney Alina Habba says Rep. LaMonica McIver indicted

3-minute read A grand jury has indicted U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver on charges related to an incident at Delaney Hall in Newark last month, said a social media post by acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba. McIver was at Delaney Hall with Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez to "inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall." All three are Democrats. The congresswoman said in a statement that the 'facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation." 'This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do,' McIver said. 'But it won't work — I will not be intimidated. The facts are on our side, I will be entering a plea of not guilty, I'm grateful for the support of my community, and I look forward to my day in court.' Habba said the federal grand jury 'returned a three-count indictment' against McIver for 'forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers.' 'It is my constitutional obligation as the chief federal law enforcement officer for New Jersey to ensure that our federal partners are protected when executing their duties,' she said. 'While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve.' The three counts have a maximum penalty of eight years for count one, an additional maximum penalty of eight years for count two and a maximum penalty of one year for count three. McIver's lawyer, Paul Fishman, who served as U.S. attorney in New Jersey during the Obama administration, said June 10 that the "legal process will expose this prosecution for what it truly is — political retaliation against a dedicated public servant who refuses to shy away from her oversight responsibilities." Earlier: NJ Rep. LaMonica McIver makes court appearance for assault charges in Newark ICE incident McIver: 'Fulfilling our lawful oversight' McIver said in a statement on May 19 that she and her colleagues were "fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short." "Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka," she said. "The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight." Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at Delaney Hall on charges of trespassing, but the charges have since been dropped. He is suing Habba alleging 'false arrest and malicious prosecution.' Fishman said in May that the "decision to charge Congresswoman McIver is spectacularly inappropriate." "She went to Delaney Hall to do her job. As a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees," Fishman said. "Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos. This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE's behavior to Congresswoman McIver. In the courtroom, facts — not headlines — will matter." Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@

Atlantic

42 minutes ago

• Atlantic

Brad Lander's Stand

As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. They arrested him anyway. The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the one where Donald Trump was convicted last year of 34 felony crimes for falsifying business records. His supporters painted the criminal-justice process as a politically motivated witch hunt. But none of them seems to mind now that masked ICE agents are lurking behind corners in the halls of justice to snatch up undocumented migrants who show up for their hearings. This was not the first time Lander had accompanied someone to the courthouse, and it wouldn't be his last. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Lander had been 'arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.' The whole thing is on video, so anyone can see that there was no assault. Lander is about as mild-mannered a politician as they come. Matt Welch, a libertarian blogger and no fan of Lander, wrote on X that the only things Lander had ever assaulted were 'Coney Island hot dogs and school-zone speed limits.' He's the kind of old-fashioned elected official who doesn't much exist anymore, the kind you see at public-library events or can call when your kid's day care is shut down and know he'll actually do something about it. A different kind of politician would have milked the attention for all it was worth. But if Brad Lander were a different kind of politician, he might be first and not third in the polls. 'I did not come today expecting to be arrested,' he told reporters after being released. 'But I really think I failed today, because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.' People who are used to living in a democracy tend to find it unsettling when elected officials are arrested, or thrown to the ground and handcuffed for asking questions at press conferences. They don't like to see elected officials indicted for trying to intervene in the arrest of other elected officials. And they find it traumatizing when, as has been happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere, they see law-abiding neighbors and co-workers they've known for years grabbed and deported. The question now is what Americans are going to do about it. Los Angeles has offered one model of response. Although Trump campaigned on finding and deporting undocumented criminals, in order to hit aggressive quotas, ICE has changed its tactics and started barging into workplaces. Citizens have reported being detained simply because they look Hispanic. Residents of one Latino neighborhood recorded ICE officers driving in an armored vehicle. Many residents felt that the raids were an invasion by the president's personal storm troopers, and marched into the streets in response. The first groups of protesters were organized by unions, but soon, other Angelenos —of many ages and backgrounds—joined them. Most of the protesters were peaceful, chanting and marching and performing mariachi around federal buildings in downtown L.A. But others were not. They defaced buildings with graffiti and summoned Waymos, the driverless taxis, in order to set them on fire. The right seized on a chance to reinforce the narrative that California is in the grip of dangerous radical-left activists, categorizing the protests as 'violent riots.' Trump overrode Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, to deploy the National Guard, and sent in Marines to protect ICE officers. Of course, that meant only that more Angelenos came out to protest. There were arrests and rubber-coated bullets and clouds of tear gas. I would have thought that the reaction to the protests from anyone outside the MAGAverse would have been pretty uniform. Democrats have been warning Americans for years about Trump's descent into authoritarianism. Now it is happening—the deportations, the arrests, the president's face on banners across government buildings, the tank parade. 'Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,' Newsom said. And yet, so many Democratic leaders, public intellectuals, and members of the media seemed distinctly uneasy about the protests. Yes, they seem to say, ICE has been acting illegally, but what about the Waymos? In The Washington Post, David Ignatius fretted about protesters waving Mexican flags and wondered if the 'activists' were actually working for Trump. Democratic leaders were 'worried the confrontation elevates a losing issue for the party,' The New York Times reported. Politico raised a more cynical question: 'Which Party Should Be More Worried About the Politics of the LA Protests?' Many Democrats denounced vandalism while supporting the right to protest. But the Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was harsh in his criticism of the protesters, lamenting that the random acts of violence and property damage by a few bad actors would cause Democrats to lose the ' moral high ground.' There is a time for politicians to fine-tune a message for maximum appeal. But this is a case of actual public outrage against the trampling of inalienable rights. This is not a fight for the moral high ground; this is a fight against authoritarianism. Democrats made themselves hoarse warning against the threat to democracy Trump's second term would present. They invoked autocracy and even fascism to stir the public to keep Trump out of office. Obviously, it didn't work. But that threat is no longer abstract. It's now very real. And for all the speeches imploring Americans to save democracy at the polls, the Democratic establishment seems remarkably tepid about supporting Americans defending democracy in the streets. Yes, Democrats would have an easier time in the court of public opinion if no protester ever picked up a can of spray paint. And certainly, setting cars on fire is not good. I myself would love to have a nice, quiet summer. But I want to save our democracy more. We can't afford to get distracted for even a moment by the excesses of a few protesters, which are vanishingly small compared with the excesses of the president of the United States. Defending liberty is a messy business: You might remember all that tea tossed into Boston Harbor. The phrase 'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God' was once considered for the Great Seal of the United States. (Thomas Jefferson adopted it for his own seal at Monticello.) And yet, although the civil-rights movement is remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil disobedience, the movement included riots and armed activist groups. Violent protests, such as the Oakland riots of 1967, were a significant part of anti-draft and anti–Vietnam War movements. Their violence did not invalidate the causes those earlier movements sought to advance, any more than the property damage caused by a few activists today invalidates the claims of the great majority of peaceful protesters. Historically, protest movements are seen as 'civil' only in retrospect. For a party that you'd think would be fighting with everything they're worth, Democrats seem remarkably focused on preserving the status quo. Even after the loss of the presidency and both houses of Congress, Democrats won't shake anything up. Despite her popularity, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been kept out of any committee-leadership position. David Hogg, the young anti-gun activist, was ousted from his position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after he announced his plan to back primary challengers against older Democratic incumbents in hopes of breathing new life into the party. Earlier this week, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed ICE to focus on what he sees as enemy territory: Democratic-leaning cities that have 'turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.' New York and L.A. are both sanctuary cities—they have passed laws pledging to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. We shouldn't be surprised to see more citizens of these cities stepping up to protect their neighbors and their communities. That is exactly what Lander was attempting to do when he was arrested. 'This is part of what authoritarians do,' Lander told Democracy Now following his release. 'Our challenge is to find a way to stand up for the rule of law, for due process, for people's rights, and to do it in a way that is nonviolent and insistent, demands it, but also doesn't help them escalate conflict.' Lander's clarity in this moment makes him a rarity, even in the highest levels of the Democratic Party. Last Saturday, when an estimated 5 million Americans protested the Trump administration and New Yorkers marched up Fifth Avenue, two of New York's most powerful elected officials, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the minority leaders of the House and the Senate, were in the Hamptons, dining on bavette and chilled English pea soup to celebrate the marriage of the megadonor Alex Soros to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide. Meanwhile, Lander was out in the streets, side by side with his constituents. A few days later, leaving the courthouse, he assured New Yorkers that he was fine, his only lasting damage a button torn from his shirt as a result of ICE's rough treatment. But, he warned, 'the rule of law is not fine, and our constitutional democracy is not fine.'

Yahoo

43 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker attacks was a ‘prepper' who had drafted a ‘bailout plan' for wife, according to court filing

The man charged in the killings of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband one week ago was a 'prepper' and had at some point given his wife a 'bailout plan' in case of 'exigent circumstances,' according to an FBI agent investigating the case. The term 'prepper' refers generally to someone who stockpiles materials and makes plans to survive some future disaster or doomsday event. In a newly unsealed affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate WCCO, FBI agent Terry Getsch wrote that Boelter and his wife were preppers and that Boelter's established 'bailout plan' instructed his wife to go to her mother's home in Wisconsin. The affidavit does not imply that Boelter's wife knew about her husband's alleged plans to attack the lawmakers, and she has not been charged with any crime. After last Saturday's shootings, Boelter's wife was pulled over by law enforcement 'while traveling with her four children to visit friends northwest of the metro area,' Getsch wrote. She consented to a search of their car, in which investigators found two handguns, passports for Boelter's wife and their children and about $10,000 in cash. During an interview, Boelter's wife said that she received a group text message from Boelter in a thread with their kids. 'Dad went to war last night … I don't wanna say more because I don't wanna implicate anybody,' one text from Boelter to members of his family read, according to a federal complaint unsealed earlier this week. The affidavit also revealed that at roughly 9 a.m. on Saturday, Boelter visited a bank in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and withdrew all $2,200 he had in a bank account in his name. A third party whose name is redacted in the affidavit drove Boelter from the bank. Boelter was driven to the bank by a person listed as 'Witness 1' in a previously unsealed court document, the same person who authorities say sold Boelter an electric bike and Buick sedan, which was found during the 43-hour manhunt last weekend. Authorities said earlier this week Boelter is believed to have carried out the attacks on lawmakers alone, but noted investigators would 'fully explore' to ensure that was the case. CNN reached out to the Brooklyn Park Police Department for an update on the investigation. Boelter, 57, faces both federal and state charges. Investigators found 'voluminous writings' in Boelter's home and car, but no clear manifesto has been uncovered, according to Acting US attorney Joseph Thompson. The notebooks contained the names of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal public officials, 'mostly or all Democrats,' according to the complaint. Some listed had ties to Planned Parenthood and the abortion rights movement. Boelter made his first appearance in federal court on Monday. He faces six federal charges, including murder, stalking and firearms offenses. He has not yet entered a plea and CNN has reached out to the federal public defender representing him for comment. Boelter is scheduled to appear in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a preliminary detention hearing on Friday.