Yesterday morning, students gathered again for a second time in the commons before school to protest the recent action being taken on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(DACA).   Compared to Wednesday’s protest, more students spoke out about the deeper issues and the emotions that they were feeling because of this news.

“We focused more on speaking to the public and our peers, instead of just chanting, and actually letting them know our story and letting them know why we are hurt. So that was the main focus today,” Senior Litzi Endesca said.

Endesca has helped to organize the protests this week, as well as speaking at them. She wanted to speak up for others that couldn’t and give hopes to those fearing what the removal of DACA could mean for them.

“I felt empowered because a lot of people rely on me to speak for them, and I’m honestly scared for myself not knowing what I’m going to do. Feeling their warmth and their love and support makes me want to let go of that fear and just strive to do better,” Endesca said.

Junior Jassmine Dominguez was also a part of organizing the protest throughout the week. Dominguez helped to organize these events because she wanted to inform the students of the importance of DACA and show their support for one another.

“We want them to know that DACA is very serious. We want students who came here illegally to be able to have a future and a career here. That shouldn’t be taken away from them because many of them didn’t know they were coming to a new country,” Dominguez said

English as a Second Language teacher Camilla Moody has worked with many of the students that will be affected by the removal of DACA and has been a supporter of the Dream Act and DACA for many years. Moody believes that student protests have been beneficial to informing others about the issues and hopes that this will gain support for other legislation.

“I think it was very positive because this is really going to hurt them in the future,” Moody said. “A lot of the students who are on DACA just want to get a driver’s license like everybody else. They want to be able to have a part time job while they are in high school. They want to be able to go to college and follow their dreams, and because this was taken away, they can’t do that right now. They have six months to pass legislation, to pass the Dream Act, and is that is something that I hope the students are going to be advocating and protesting and raising awareness about that because that would be a more permanent solution to their situation.”

According to Endesca, the goal of the protests was to spread the word among the students and the community so that they know how it is affecting people.  She hopes that their efforts will speak for their cause and help to spark change for their futures.

“I want people to know that we exist, us immigrants and us DACA students exist, and that we are not afraid. We do not want to be in the shadows of the immigrations laws. We are done being scared and that’s why we want to show them that we are more than just a document. Unfortunately a document is what defines us, yet we want to strive to do better,” Endesca said.

The students also planned a walk-in this morning before school at 8:20 a.m. out by the flagpole.  Students met outside and then walked into school together to show that they want to be at school and support those being affected by the removal of DACA.

“We don’t want to do a walkout because we feel like that defeats the purpose of wanting to do better, not for ourselves but for our community. We want to show that walking out defeats the purpose of an education and we want to instead go and walk in. What we are going to do is we are going to meet at the flagpole and we are going to chant, cheer, scream and let go of our fear. We are going to walk inside of school and show them that this is where we belong,” Endesca said.