They poured into the streets, hundreds of them, chanting demands in unison. They were high school students, and they’re fighting for the city of Los Angeles to uptick its sanctuary city policies—in order to better protect undocumented immigrants threatened by the incoming Donald Trump presidency.
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Monday afternoon was the second time in the last week they united, to fiercely call on their local government.
“We want this city to be a sanctuary where we feel safe and where we’re not scared about our future,” said Xochil Ramirez, a junior at Roosevelt High School, who helped organize the march.
The rally saw more than half a dozen high schools from the east side of Los Angeles, where the majority of students are of Latin American descent. Just at Roosevelt High alone, more than 95 percent of students are Latinx, and the school even offers a club for undocumented students.
“Even though the president and Congress will be led by Republicans, we’re ready to stand united and defeat any obstacles that come our way,” said Ramirez, whose parents hail from Mexico.
Among the multifarious pledges Trump has made that will adversely affect the most marginalized communities, the threat of slashed funding to sanctuary cities looms in particular.
That would sever funding to nearly 300 cities and counties around the nation that block local law enforcement from targeting undocumented immigrants. The policies range from prohibiting asking questions about legal status, to disregarding DHS-ICE requests to keep immigrants in jail until they’re taken into federal custody.
The city’s mayor affirmed last week to keep its sanctuary city status. It’s one of the few cities that does not hold undocumented inmates in jail at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a practice that emerged during the Obama administration, where so-called detainer requests have been used to target undocumented immigrants convicted of criminal acts, especially violent ones.
The Obama era still stands as one that has deported the most people ever from the United States.
Los Angeles made history by becoming the first sanctuary city in 1979, with then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates signing Special Order 40, which declared “officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person.”
Migrant rights activists say that’s not enough.
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“The existing policy is very much inadequate and will need to be improved upon even as it comes under attack from the Trump administration,” said Chris Newman, legal director at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
“We needed to do this for ourselves, our parents and our undocumented students,” said senior Ruth Altamirano, the student body president at East Los Angeles Performing Arts Academy. “We want to promote peace and safety and be a shelter for our community.”