On the 13th of February, a fundraiser for the purposes of supporting Foothills undocumented students was held in the Dining Hall.
Served at the front were “delicious elote”, a popular Mexican street food centered around corn, and priced at $5 for Students and $10 for Employees.
Many took the stage for informative talks. One of which was Professor Hilda Fernandez who held a short session on what to do if you find yourself detained or witness someone being detained by an ICE Agent, Federal Personnel, or Police Officer. Some of the important Do’s that she explained were to, if you can record what is happening, focus on the person detaining instead of on the detainee. If the detainee is a person you know, do your utmost to not say or reveal any personal information about them on video. This includes their name, and whatever their immigration/citizenship status may or may not be. She also expressed the importance of not editing or doctoring this video in any way, as well as turning it over to Rapid Response or an Immigration Lawyer rather than uploading it to social media. She ended her talk with a rallying chant of “Do we have rights?” to cries of “Yes!”
The Chief of Police, Daniel Acosta, also took it upon himself to assuage any concerns students-undocumented or otherwise-may have about the District Police and what role they could occupy. He made it known that, for them, it is “against the law to use state funds for immigration enforcement purposes” and that the District Police are able to help you regardless of your citizenship status. He also made it known that they may even be able to help certain undocumented students acquire T-Visas or U-Visas in certain cases. Daniel repeated his speech in Spanish, before letting everyone know that a “Know Your Rights” workshop was taking place on February 26th from 5-7pm.
Though much of the decorations and food focused on the Latino community, undocumented students come from every community and the panel took some time to acknowledge that important fact. Introduced by Professor Suzy Quezada, multiple affinity groups took the stage-consisting of the African American Network (presented by April Henderson), the Asian/Pacific American Network (presented by Jordan Fong), the Rainbow Alliance Network (presented by Clifton Der Bing), and the Organización Latino Americana (presented by Alex Favela). Here, they read from a letter created to reaffirm and support Foothills commitment to equity and inclusion for all, as well as taking an active stance against discrimination and bigotry.
If you or someone you know is undocumented, please know that there are resources at Foothill available for you, such as DREAMers and UndocuALLY.
