EAST SAN JOSE highschool college students and immigration advocates are protesting latest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in San Jose.
A whole lot of scholars from William C. Overfelt Excessive College in East San Jose participated in a walkout Tuesday and marched to the intersection of Story and King roads, the place residents reported seeing ICE brokers Sunday. College students carried Mexican flags and indicators studying “Immigrants make America great” and “Protect our farmworkers,” whereas chanting “Stop the raids, stop the hate.”
Natasha Salazar, a scholar at Overfelt Excessive, thinks it’s unfair to interrupt households aside.
“People who really aren’t criminals shouldn’t be labeled as criminals,” she advised San José Highlight.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan confirmed Monday ICE has been lively within the metropolis. The federal company, which has a area workplace in Morgan Hill, has been growing its focus on undocumented immigrants since President Donald Trump took workplace — stoking fears of deportation locally. San Jose and Santa Clara County officers have been working to assist residents who could also be liable to deportation. The county is residence to an estimated 134,000 undocumented immigrants.
“We don’t participate nor are we asked to participate,” Mahan mentioned in an interview with CNN Monday. “San Jose Police Department, when appropriate, will certainly share information with other law enforcement agencies if it is in the interest of keeping people safe, but we do not ask people their status or engage in immigration enforcement as routine business in our city.”
ICE didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Ofelia Machuca, an Overfelt Excessive College alumna, mentioned she fears her neighborhood shall be torn aside by ICE raids. (Joyce Chu/San Jose Highlight)
Lori Ramos-Chavez, vice chairman of ConXión to Neighborhood, mentioned she is already seeing how the concern of raids has affected college students and the neighborhood. Her group gives mentorship, life abilities coaching and tutorial assist to college students in East San Jose, a predominantly Latino and deprived a part of the town. She mentioned participation has dropped about 40% since final week, which she fears will negatively have an effect on college students’ futures.
“When you live in fear, how can you think about the future?” Ramos-Chavez advised San José Highlight. “You just think about right now, trying to survive until tomorrow, trying to stay with your family.”
J. Manuel Herrera, a trustee with the East Facet Union Excessive College District, mentioned it’s uncommon for district college students to stroll out of sophistication.
“But they and all of us are living at a historic time in our nation,” he advised San José Highlight. “This was a walkout driven by conscience and compassion in response to the palpable fear in our community. Our students are publicly saying that no vulnerable members of our community will stand alone, that there are many of us who will stand with them for whatever lies ahead.”
“When you live in fear, how can you think about the future? You just think about right now, trying to survive until tomorrow, trying to stay with your family.”
Lori Ramos-Chavez, vice chairman of ConXión to Neighborhood
Ofelia Machuca, an alumna of Overfelt Excessive, attended the walkout and protest. She mentioned whereas she was born within the U.S., she has relations who’re undocumented and afraid to go to work.
“I fear for my family. I fear for my community,” Machuca advised San José Highlight. “Where my fear stems from is knowing that people that we love and care about are no longer going to have that opportunity to be here to succeed.”
Machuca carries know-your-rights playing cards at hand out wherever she goes. The playing cards are supposed to educate undocumented immigrants on their rights, together with understanding they’ll select to not reply questions and refuse to let an ICE agent inside their residence with out a warrant.
“I really hope, and I’m trusting that if ICE is here, that they’re taking the people that they’re supposed to take, like the people who are committing these crimes and harming the community,” Machuca mentioned. “Not a hard working father, not a hard working mother.”
This story initially appeared in San Jose Highlight.
