Young people in Sacramento: Why aren’t our city leaders fighting ICE? | Opinion
On Jan. 27, hundreds of people filled the Sacramento City Hall council chambers and more than 650 local residents wrote in online comments that they wanted city officials to do more to protect residents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. We packed the room so full that people waited in a four-hour line to speak.
Three days later, more than 1,000 students walked out of schools across Sacramento as part of a nationwide anti-ICE protest.
Locals of all ages and walks of life are sacrificing their time and taking real risks to stand against ICE. But young people feel increasingly abandoned by the adults in charge. Our entire lives, we’ve heard a constant backdrop of racist rhetoric targeting minority communities.
As young children, we were told we could rely on politicians for protection. But during the 2016 election, Donald Trump ran a campaign that demonized immigrants. Now, a decade later, a militant ICE is terrorizing our communities, and our elected officials are still hesitating to take bold action to stand up to Trump.
Elected officials have failed to keep their promise to protect us, so now an older and revitalized Generation Z (people between the ages of 14 and 29) is taking to the streets.
In school, we are taught that America is the land of the free, but young people across Sacramento neighborhoods are feeling the disconnect between that story and our reality.
An 11th grader in North Sacramento who spoke with us anonymously to preserve their family’s safety said that when their parents are running late, their first though is “that they have been taken by ICE.” Meanwhile, an 11th grader in Gardenland in North Sacramento—who also spoke anonymously — shared the grief of this moment: “I contemplate speaking Spanish with my siblings in fear of ICE detainment; I feel a piece of my culture dying.”
Gen Z faces an uncertain world: a changing climate, a growing housing and homelessness crisis, gun violence and cruel immigrant detention and family separations by ICE. We believe in a better world, and we’re speaking out—calling out elected officials who fail to meet us with the changes we need to keep our communities safe.
As the capital city of California, Sacramento should stand as the model for collaboration between youth and adults in protecting our diverse community. Some Sacramentans are modelling this already, as young people are standing with the dozens of community organizations that have united behind a call for accountability from our city around ICE.
Our city council has a responsibility to live up to the legacy we proclaim as one of the first sanctuary cities in the country. We won’t let them just pass symbolic statements and get away with claiming they have done enough.
We see how empty these statements are when the Sacramento Police Department finds ways to punish protesters in the exact spot the Sacramento City Council just affirmed as a free speech zone.
Sacramento city leaders must engage in full noncooperation and eliminate every way that immigration enforcement is empowered to act through city resources. That starts with expanding the proposal to prohibit ICE’s use of city properties, which will be returning to the city council for a vote. The exact date for the vote has not yet been determined, but the proposal was approved on Feb. 10 at the Law & Legislation Committee.
Moving forward, the city must pass a comprehensive action plan, as called for by Councilmember Mai Vang, that is informed by lessons learned by cities such as Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
Sacramentans will continue to do whatever it takes to keep our communities safe, and we’ll continue demanding our elected officials join us.
Reyes Rios, 16, is chair of the City of Sacramento’s Youth Commission. Moiz Mir works as the organizing and advocacy manager for the Asian American Liberation Network.