Local high school students turned out in force at Franklin Park on Friday, February 27, to voice their demands for recognition and an end to the chaos created recently by immigration police.
Students from the Alameda Community Learning Center, ASTI, Encinal High School and St. Joseph Notre Dame gathered for a lively political rally organized by their peers. Close to 100 participants cheered as speakers urged them to get involved in local organizing and stand in support of immigrants who have been targeted by the Trump administration.
The recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests and demands by congressional Democrats-–and some Republicans as well—that ICE officers be restrained.
Those events motivated St. Joseph Notre Dame student Farrah, one of the event’s organizers. “We had these people come out because the atrocities that ICE has been committing to United States citizens and people who have earned the right to be here is disgusting,” she said.
“Separating parents from their children is wrong and I feel it’s anti what the United States should be about and especially what California should be about,” she added. “I’m sure I share that sentiment with a lot of people here.”
Many of the students carried signs supporting immigrants and denouncing hate. Several signs trashed ICE in two words, one of them being an f-bomb.
Speakers reminded the crowd that the nation was built by immigrants and students cheered when asked to repeat the phrase, “None of us are free until all of us are free.”
Central to the gathering was a petition students were asked to sign. It asks the City to turn its designation as an immigrant sanctuary into an ordinance which would presumably carry more weight.
Other demands include designating all City-owned property as ICE-free zones, canceling the City’s contract for license plate recognition with a firm known to be indirectly involved with ICE, and requiring Alameda Police Department to draft a written policy forbidding cooperation with ICE agents.
The petition also seeks a change to the City charter that would give 16- and 17-year-old students the right to vote in school board elections. Oakland and Berkeley already allow youth voting. Giving students electoral power is key to letting their voices be heard on issues that affect them, the organizers said.
“As young people we are directly impacted by the decisions made at the municipal level,” the petition reads. “We believe the City should reflect the values of inclusion, solidarity and representation that we embody every day. You are building the world that we inherit. We want that world to be profoundly democratic, just, and free.”
Along with the speeches, Friday’s gathering was meant to help students figure out how they could get involved, said St. Joseph Notre Dame senior Luke.
“[Today is about] starting to build political culture and build a training ground for students to feel like they have political efficacy,” he said.
David Boitano is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/David-Boitano.
