Biography
Edin Alex Enamorado, of Upland, California, is a street-vendor-rights activist known for viral social-media videos confronting people who harass Latino street vendors and challenging what he calls discriminatory local enforcement of street-vending laws. He is the lead defendant among the "Justice 8," eight activists arrested in December 2023 over confrontations at three September 2023 protests in the Inland Empire and Pomona. Held without bail since his December 14, 2023 arrest, Enamorado faces 16 felony counts — including conspiracy, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and assault with a deadly weapon. His six co-defendants took plea deals in 2024 (the women receiving probation, the men two-year terms with credit for time served) and a seventh had his charges dropped; Enamorado — the group's alleged leader — rejected a plea offer (in part because he is undocumented) and continues to fight the charges from jail, where supporters call his prolonged detention political persecution of an activist.