In a generation best-known for disconnecting and apathy than for political activitism, getting thousands of students to take on stiff monetary penalties and possible expulsion to participate in civil disobedience is a minor miracle. What exactly prompted this reaction? Family.
Students see issue as attack on families
Many youths in protest have elders who came to U.S. illegally
— reported by the Houston Chronicle
[snip]
In a bill passed in December, the U.S. House included a measure making it a felony to be in the country illegally. The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected that measure Monday as it began debate on the issue.
Arguelles distributed the flier at school in the morning, which emboldened many of the students to walk out of class despite a campus lockdown. In the rest of the message, he detailed why he wanted his peers, who were all Hispanic, to walk out.
That didn’t include any discussion of the hot-button issues currently being deliberated — a guest worker program, penalties on employers who hire immigrants and beefed-up border security. Instead, he noted that they might not have this life had their elders not come to this country seeking opportunity.
Immigration activists and experts said that many Hispanic youths view the immigration proposal as a personal attack on their families.
[snip]
On Monday, nearly 150 students from Eisenhower High School protested proposed immigration reform laws by walking nine miles to an immigration office.
These students “are the future generation,” Romo said. “They are the ones who are going to inherit what we do with this country.”
