Dallas high school students drove miles to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to attend the 90th LULAC anniversary and national convention, but a situation arose after their arrival. LULAC stands for the League of United Latin American Citizens. Dallas students along with other local youths were informed that Senator Ron Johnson was the Senate Homeland Security Chairman and had done nothing to end the detention camps at the border. This was enough to get the youth attending the convention out on the streets and ready to have their voices heard.
Dallas high school student at Milwaukee Protest.
The students represented various schools around the city including, North Dallas, Irma Rangel YWLS, Molina, Kimball and Sunset high schools. They marched the streets of Milwaukee with signs, chants and one goal: to sit down down with Sen. Johnson and come up with a bipartisan solution to end child detention camps on the border.
The students arrived at Johnson’s office with dolls in cages, aluminum foil wrapped around them, American flags, and posters that read, “My generation will knock your wall down” and “Government is like scotch, best with no ICE.” Students wanted their voices heard.
Sen. Johnson did not sit down with the youth or accept the letter asking to come to an agreement. A North Dallas student said, “Sen. Johnson, they are not delinquents. They have all the right to be here just like we all do.”
The senator’s refusal to meet with students only made them yell and chant louder. More than 100 protesters chanted “No cages, no walls,” “Free the kids now” and “No Trump. No KKK. No racist USA.”
A few Dallas students were seen crying. They said it hit close to home. “I’ve learned to use my voice. It doesn’t matter that I’m brown, a woman, young, or from immigrant parents. I have the same rights as every other American and I will use those rights to help those who are put down and don’t have a voice like mine,” said an Irma Rangel student.
Take a look at some of the pictures taken during the protest.
