On Nov. 6, nearly 100 high school students walked out of their classes and marched to the Tucson Police Station to demand that the Tucson Unified School District and the Tucson Police Department stop bringing Border Patrol agents into the schools. The students marched nearly five miles chanting, “Sí se puede” and “We are students, not criminals.” Many carried signs that read “Migra out of our schools!”
The march was in response to the arrest and deportation of two brothers, both students, and their family on Nov. 1. One of the students deported was very young—a middle school student—and he was pulled out of class without any warning after the Tucson police entered a high school and arrested his older brother for a small amount of marijuana found in his backpack.
The racist police demanded proof of citizenship from the high school student, and when the student failed to produce documents that satisfied the police, the Border Patrol was called into the school.
The deported family had peacefully resided in Tucson for six years and within a matter of hours were uprooted from their home and jobs and pushed out of the country, forced to leave everything behind.
The protesting students did manage to wring a concession from the school board and police. The Border Patrol will no longer be called into the schools.
These determined youth are showing that they can organize quickly and that fighting back against the racist, anti-immigrant onslaught can yield results.
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