I’m sharing this not to center myself, but to explain why students felt compelled to act.
We spoke up because we see our futures in jeopardy.
Ignorance is not neutral. Ignorance is a choice, and it is a choice that costs us our future.
When systems of harm are allowed to continue unchallenged, we inherit them. We are the ones who will live longest with the consequences.
I do not feel safe with ICE operating the way it does. I know I am not alone. Some of the fears that keep me up are the daily reality for other people. What feels like a nightmare to me is simply life for them.
I just want to specify that people do not come here illegally because they want to break the law. They come because the systems meant to protect them are slow, inaccessible, or closed entirely. When someone is escaping persecution or violence, waiting years for paperwork is not an option. Survival does not move at the pace of bureaucracy.
ICE turns their desperation into punishment. Through raids, detention, and family separation, it creates fear instead of safety. It does this in our communities, in our schools, and in our homes.
Tonight, I am speaking to people who bring experience, perspective, and lived history into this space. I want to say this with honesty and respect. When young people feel the need to organize, to protest, and to put themselves on the line, it is because silence was not protecting us.
When youth need to speak up, it often means no one else was going to do it for us.
I can say without a doubt that the youth stepped up; not because we wanted to, but because we had to make sure our voices were heard.
Now I want to ask something of you.
I am asking you to be uncomfortable.
Discomfort is not danger. For many of us, discomfort is the most we are ever asked to feel.
For others, fear is constant. Safety is conditional. Stability is fragile.
Discomfort alone is not the goal. Action is.
My call to action is this. Do not let tonight end with us sacrificing our morals and allowing for the maltreatment of our immigrant communities .
I am asking you to use your experience, your time, your voice, and your influence to make room for those who are forced into silence.
Justice does not begin with comfort.
It begins when we decide that other people’s safety, freedom, and future matter as much as our own.
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So please, vote yes on agenda item 3.3
Thank you.
Nova
California