At the same time as cities across the nation were packed with
demonstrators Monday, the northern corner of the UCLA campus
mirrored such rallies on a much smaller scale.
The gathering was led by students in the UCLA Department of
Urban Planning from within the School of Public Affairs. It was
mostly composed of graduate students from the school and drew a
crowd of about 50.
The Public Policy building was the meeting point for protesters
planning on heading downtown where hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators gathered.
Students held signs and led chants in both English and Spanish
criticizing recently proposed legislation that would employ more
stringent enforcement of undocumented immigration.
Speakers emphasized solidarity across cultures and equated
immigrant rights to human rights.
Though the majority of the students present at the on-campus
rally and at the protests in downtown Los Angeles were Latino,
students from other immigrant backgrounds were present as well.
Matt Lum, a first-year urban planning graduate student whose
parents immigrated from China, helped organize the rally.
Lum said a large portion of the urban planning department did
not show up to class on Monday.
“Out of a class of 70, probably about 10 students were
willing to go,” he said.
For Natalia Garcia, a second year history student, the protests
are personal. Garcia’s parents came to the U.S. as
undocumented immigrants, and both later received documentation. Her
mother came over when she was pregnant to ensure her children would
be American citizens.
“I do have (undocumented) immigrant relatives who are
working and contributing to the economy,” she said.
Garcia said people take the risk to cross the border only
because they are desperate for jobs.
“If people don’t want immigrants they should just
not hire (them),” she said. “They need the labor of
immigrants for this country to survive.”
The graduate students found support from the faculty of the
urban planning department.
“I am an immigrant myself,” said Professor Anastasia
Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of the urban planning department.
“I thought that there are some issues that need to be heard.
… A number of students asked me not to hold the class, and I knew
that most people would not be coming anyway.”
Most of the faculty accommodated student requests to not hold
class, she said.
Other professors who did hold class agreed not to penalize
students who did not attend, Fernandez said, and some professors
joined the rally.
“I came to support what they’re doing,” said
Jacqueline Leavitt, an urban planning professor.
The students left the rally to join the larger protest
downtown.
Garcia described the downtown rally as masses of people, with
low police visibility.
“There was a lot of solidarity,” she said.