Hundreds of students from East Los Angeles schools staged a walkout in protest of President-elect Donald Trump and his immigration reform plans.
Monday’s walkout was the latest in what has been a week of demonstrations since Trump was elected president. Trump campaigned on the promise of deporting undocumented immigrants and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and now Eastside students are speaking out against those policies.
Students from several East Los Angeles schools, including Garfield and Roosevelt High School, walked out of their classrooms to City Hall in downtown L.A. A crowd stopped at Mariachi Plaza to call for unity during the anti-Trump demonstration, the LA Times reports. The Times writes that students chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” and that students stood against Trump, calling him a racist.
School buses arrived to City Hall at 12:30 p.m. to take students back to school.
The Los Angeles Police Department prevents officers from initiating contact with anybody for the sole purpose of determining if that person is in the country legally or illegally. The police department also does not turn over undocumented immigrants who have committed low-level crimes to federal agents, the LA Times reports. Police Chief Charlie Beck said on Monday that he doesn’t plan on changing those policies.
Photo above: Students gathered at Mariachi Plaza on Monday, before heading downtown. Photo courtesy of Carlos Montes/CSO
