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Gabriel Buelna

Dr. Gabriel Buelna holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University and serves as a faculty member in the Chicana/o Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. He is the founder and principal attorney of The Buelna Law Firm, A.P.C., based in South Pasadena, where he focuses on Family and Criminal Law. In addition to his academic and legal work, Dr. Buelna serves as an elected Trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District.

Dr. Buelna is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, allowing him to effectively serve and advocate for diverse communities across Los Angeles. He can be reached at gabriel@buelnalaw.com. Follow him on TikTok @TacosAndLaw or visit www.buelnalaw.com.

Opinion: Trump Doesn’t Want to Stop Fentanyl—He Wants Mexican Slave Labor

Like in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the story being sold is terrorism and security, but the machinery being built points to something deeper: keeping Mexico in its place. Washington is not afraid of fentanyl. It is afraid of a Mexico that builds its own economy, reforms its own judiciary, and refuses to play second fiddle.

September 2, 2025

How NALEO Lost Its Nerve When Latinos Needed It Most

So far, the response from large and influential Latino organizations to protect our communities—immigrant or not—has been weak and ineffective. The fact that ICE can run roughshod over Latino neighborhoods across the nation with little discernible resistance is alarming.

Opinion: Latino Politicians at NALEO Need to Do Better As Trump Targets Brown Communities

The time for polite moderation is over. We need boldness. We need mass political education. We need legal defense funds, organizing infrastructure, and a renewed belief that Latinos are not guests in this country—we are foundational to it.

The Dodgers Keep Breaking Our Brown, Expendable Hearts

Mexicans and Latinos make up forty percent of the Dodgers fan base. We buy the jerseys, the beer, the overpriced nachos—yet we're still treated like background noise, like we don’t belong in the very stadium we helped build.

Opinion: How To Stay Legally Trucha with Your Protest Lucha

Risks right now are high. Intervening in the arrest or detention of a loved one—however tragic or emotional the moment—carries serious legal consequences. In these tense encounters with federal agents, your options are limited, and one wrong move can escalate quickly.

Opinion: Senator Padilla’s Arrest is Proof Trump Wants to Silence Truth At All Costs

At the moment of Padilla’s arrest, he was no longer a sitting senator, or citizen of this country, he became just another Mexican. Trump is primed to lose the Battle for Los Angeles, not because he lacks resources or loyal followers, but because he doesn't even understand the battlefield itself. 

Trump Can’t Win The Battle for Los Angeles

The idea that Trump can intimidate, criminalize, and remove us with a wave of troops and tanks is not only absurd—it’s offensive. We’ve seen soldiers in unmarked uniforms rolling through neighborhoods as if they were patrolling Fallujah. But this isn’t a war zone. This is Pico Union. This is Boyle Heights. This is Huntington Park. These are our homes. Our neighborhoods.

Opinion: Donnie TACO and the War on All Things ‘Mexican’

The irony of the T.A.C.O. acronym is that it appears to have caught Trump and his MAGA supporters off guard. Like a magic trick—presto—the tables have turned. And now they’re stuck. The mere idea of Trump being linked to a Mexican-adjacent term is infuriating to them.

Opinion: Stranding Kilmar Abrego Garcia In El Salvador Is a Symbol of The Decline of the U.S.

Bukele is not resisting the U.S.—he is helping perform political theater alongside Trump. And Abrego Garcia is the prop.

Opinion: We Must Defend Chicano Studies From Trump’s Attacks …Again

There is no doubt that attacks on courses like Chicano Studies are coming—indeed, they are already here. The assaults seen on Tucson’s Mexican American Studies and the1619 Project will only intensify and spread nationwide. The real question is: Are we prepared to confront them?