UCI marchers protest as Trump begins his presidency
A few hours after Donald Trump was sworn in Friday as the nation’s 45th president, a line of more than 100 UC Irvine faculty members and students took to the campus in pouring rain to demonstrate their opposition to his policies on immigration and other issues and urge other opponents to keep organizing during Trump’s presidency.
Some shouted “Education, not deportation” and held signs reading “Black lives matter” and “Immigrants welcome.”
“We need to show that Trump’s policy on mass deportation [of undocumented immigrants] is not acceptable to our communities,” said Jordan Hoiberg, 22, an Irvine Valley College student who marched at the front of the line. He said he learned about the march through the Socialist Party.
His sign read: “Join us! If not you, who. If not now, when.”
As passersby on campus saw demonstrators coming through, Hoiberg waved and gestured for them to follow.
A few people standing outside the science library smiled and joined in.
Friday’s hour-long rally was organized by UCI graduate students and professors immediately after the Nov. 8 election.
“There were lots of different people talking about organizing at UCI,” said Keith Danner, a lecturer in UCI’s School of Humanities. “Out of the big, long discussion, people thought it would be good to have a group that was against all forms of oppression.”
UCI student Gunindy Abeysekera and his sister and parents became U.S. citizens in September.
“It’s something we had been waiting for for a long time,” Abeysekera, 19, said during the march. “I want to make sure other people have the same opportunity as my family did.”
UCI Ph.D. student Melissa Wrapp joined in a few meetings that organizers held in the weeks leading to the march.
“I’m standing up for the better ideals that I know come to represent our country,” Wrapp said.
UCI announced in December that among the 10 University of California campuses, it had the most Chicano and Latino freshmen applicants for fall 2017, with 23,463, and the third-highest number of African American freshmen applicants, with 3,220.
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
