Students protest Arizona law

By Ben WiebesiekThe Met, Metropolitan College of Denver NewspaperMay 5, 2010A dozen Auraria students stood shivering at the campus flagpole as a surprise April snowstorm blew across banners and bullhorns.
But they hoped their voices would be heard someplace warmer: Arizona.
Students from Metro, CCD and UCD marched from Auraria to the steps of the state Capitol to show solidarity with students across Colorado and the nation April 29 to protest Arizona Senate Bill 1070. The legislation was signed a week earlier by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to strengthen state enforcement of immigration laws.
“[The bill] represents another tool for our state to use as we work to solve a crisis we did not create and the federal governments has refused to fix: the crisis caused by illegal immigration and Arizona’s porous border,” Brewer said.
The Auraria students met with several hundred high school and middle school students from Denver Public Schools at the Capitol to hear speakers from Padres Unidos Jovenes Unidos, an organization pushing for comprehensive immigration reform.
Victor Galvan, a CCD freshman who worked with Padres Unidos Jovenes Unidos to organize the Auraria march, said the protest was organized because the Arizona bill will lead to racial profiling of Hispanic people in Arizona.
“We saw that Arizona was trying to pass this bill, and it snuck up on us like no other,” Galvan said. “In one week, we heard it had passed through the Senate, and then the next week it passed the House. The undocumented population is fleeing Arizona in fear that they will be deported.”
Galvan said police will have no choice but to profile people by race during traffic stops and routine arrests because the majority will be Spanish-speaking.
“They’re supposed to be looking for undocumented immigrants, but what does an undocumented immigrant look like?” he said. “A large part of the Spanish-speaking community won’t report crimes to the police because they will be afraid they will be forced to show identification, and this, in turn, will further hurt the community.”
UCD recording arts student Jordan Duran said he attended protests in 2006 while he was in high school but he didn’t really know much about the details of immigration reform.
“When I came to Auraria, I learned that if students work hard, they can accomplish a lot,” Duran said. “I’m part of this march so more students can get the opportunities I received.”
Galvan agreed that previous efforts at reform offered many lessons for the current push to change the process for U.S. citizenship.
“We saw a huge push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2006, but there was no organization afterward,” Galvan said. “I feel that in the last four years we have learned from that experience. We are more organized and we are utilizing more techniques to get people involved.”
At the Auraria flagpole gathering, Galvan warned protesters to be on the look-out for members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a group advocating for an increase of border security through volunteer patrols, civil protest, demonstration and political lobbying.
“We expect Minutemen to be there. They were there in 2006, trying to antagonize us,” Galvan told the crowd. “Our biggest tool to overcome their attempts is to lock arms-in-arms as we march. Remember, this is a peaceful protest.”
At the Capitol, members of the Colorado State Patrol patrolled on bicycles, but there was no sign of counter-protest.
State Trooper E.P. Padilla said if there were Minutemen at the Capitol, he hadn’t seen them.
“The rally was very peaceful,” Padilla said. “Everyone acted responsibly.”