While organizing a march to show support of DACA, Alejandro Arellano Ramirez, 13, said he hoped to change people’s minds.
“Hopefully, we just change people’s minds that immigrants are bad people,” Ramirez said Saturday in front of Lafayette City Hall.
Ramirez was one of seven students from Angevine Middle School who organized a march and rally in support of the immigration policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program, started under former President Barack Obama, shields people brought to the United States as children from deportation. The protected status must be renewed every two years.
About 30 students, parents and residents made the 1 1/2-mile march from city hall to Waneka Lake Park Saturday afternoon, chanting “immigrant rights are human rights,” “love, not hate, makes America great,” “education, not deportation,” and more along the way.
The students, all seventh graders, worked on the march throughout the year as their Public Achievement project. In the program, University of Colorado undergraduates go into students’ classrooms once per week to help them learn about civic engagement and guide groups through projects and discussions tackling different social issues.
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