‘Our Existence, It is the Resistance’: Students Walk Out of Class, Protest for Immigrant Rights
By Areebah Bharmal
Reporting Texas
About two dozen students gathered at the University of Texas at Austin Main Mall to protest for immigrant rights.. Areebah Bharmal/Reporting Texas
About two dozen students gathered at the University of Texas at Austin’s Main Mall last week to protest for immigrant rights. The walkout and demonstration was organized by Austin’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
“We’re here to declare that our student voice cannot be crushed and cannot be censored and cannot be broken,” said Arshia Papari, spokesperson for the Austin chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
The group posted a list of demands on social media ahead of the demonstration, including preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement from being on campus, protecting undocumented students and declaring UT a sanctuary campus.
“What is currently going on in this country, and what is currently going on in the university and what is currently going on around the city, it is nothing short of unjust,” said Luca Reyes, president of Austin’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
Among the attendees at the demonstration was Laysha Renee Gonzalez, a first generation Mexican American student at UT. She said the opportunity to get an education at UT comes with a responsibility to her community.
“It’s a matter of necessity, and it’s a matter of just showing up as I am and just being here,” Gonzalez said. “Our existence, it is the resistance.”
Austin Students for a Democratic Society member Kayla Reballosa was also among those who gathered at the Tower. As a government major, she said this issue feels very personal to her.
“It’s really stressful taking (government) classes, learning about all the rights that are guaranteed to us and the way government is supposed to protect us, … but somehow it’s still being used to attack and hurt students and just people in general,” Reballosa said.
At the end of the demonstration, members entered the UT Tower in an attempt to speak with administration, but they were unsuccessful. Austin Students for a Democratic Society has reached out to UT officials multiple times previously, through email and a letter delivery to the president’s office, but have not been able to get a response.
“Our end goal here … was to engage with admin in an amicable way, in a civil way,” Papari said.
Members were told to reach out to university officials through email instead, but they again did not hear back. According to Papari, they emailed the president’s office and hand-delivered their demands to interim UT President James Davis at one of his presidential pop-up events.
Austin Students for a Democratic Society is now planning to hold a national call-in campaign to demand a meeting with administration for action on immigrant rights.
“We are so powerful that they are scared to even hear us out. So we have to come out here and shout,” Gonzalez said at last week’s demonstration.