“Up, up with liberation, down, down with deportation” California college students chanted on Monday when they gathered to protest college costs and immigration laws.
KTXL-TV reports, students representing all 10 University of California campuses gathered at the Capitol in Sacramento to express support for Senate Bill 54.
The measure aims to prohibit state and local law enforcement from helping federal law enforcement in making illegal immigration arrests.
"Having to validate your existence, it's really something else," Rubyn Olvera told KTXL.
The report continues:
Although UC President Janet Napolitano announced in January she will protect undocumented students at all UC Schools, some students say President Trump’s attitude toward immigrants still puts them at risk.
"There is tremendous concern that there isn't going to be support for all people who are present, for all people who deserve to be here," Ralph Washington Jr., president of the University of California Student Association, said.
Another issue these students were working to bring attention to - budget cuts and tuition increases.
"We are not asking for a hand out. We are asking for a hand up," UC Berkeley student Hezekiah Burton said.
KTXL reports that when Burton heard that UC Regents voted to raise tuition costs by almost $350 for the first time in seven years, he was "devastated."
"Are we really setting up our students who were accepted into these institutions for success? Or are we allowing them to struggle so that at the end of four years, they can say they have a degree but they're in piles of debt?"
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For the complete KTXL report click here.