A few hundred Nashua high school students staged a walkout Wednesday to protest the aggressive federal immigration enforcement playing out nationally. Several said living in one of the most diverse cities in the state — or with immigrant parents — has left them fearful for family and friends.
Sixteen-year-old Manuel Lorenzo was the first in his family to be born in the U.S. He lives with his grandmother, who is from the Dominican Republic and speaks only Spanish. Lorenzo fears federal immigration agents won’t care that she is in the country legally.
“It really gets me in my heart because at any moment, that could be my family, the people that I care for,” Lorenzo said.
Nashua’s school superintendent said students who joined the walkout would face consequences because the district had not approved the event.
That didn’t deter senior Kaylee Hall, who said she’s encountered prejudice because her mom is Vietnamese. She shared a story on an Instagram page for the event about an experience at a local fast food restaurant, where a man asked her, “What are you?”
Hall helped organize the rally and a fundraising effort that helped cover expenses. Their “Stand with Nashua Against ICE Harm” GoFundMe page had raised more than half its $1,100 goal by late Wednesday.
“We do not have the power to vote,” Hall said, “but we have the power to speak.”
There are 49 languages spoken in Nashua schools and more than 1,600 students are learning English, according to the district. Senior Keegan Dolan said two things led her to partner with Hall to organize the walkout: news about a possible ICE detention facility in the nearby town of Merrimack, and comments she’s heard from students while interning at a Nashua elementary school.
Most of the school’s students are non-white, she said.
“These tiny, tiny six- and seven-year-olds are scared for their parents, for them,” Dolan said. “And no kids should be scared of that.”
Nashua junior Jordin Lopez, who is Hispanic, put it this way.
“Even if they are legally here, ICE doesn't care,” she said. “They see you on the street. You look a little Spanish. You have an accent. You're taken.”
Sixteen-year-old Alexa Couto’s parents are both immigrants. Her father, who is from Brazil, has told her how to react if she is stopped by an immigration agent.
“He just says, ‘Comply. Give your name. Follow instructions. Don't fight back with them,’ “ Couto said.
Like Lopez, she’s not convinced that would be enough for immigration and border control agents. “The fact is, even if you do comply, they don't care,” Couto said.
New Hampshire immigration lawyer Ron Abramson, who has fielded calls about immigration enforcement from New Hampshire schools, is not surprised young people are as concerned as adults about the issue right now.
“People's fear is palpable and justified because there used to be some semblance of guardrails or lines or limits to how far immigration enforcement would go,” Abramson said. “Those seem to have been obliterated in gthis administration. There's no safe space.”
A few hundred Concord students staged a walkout last week to protest aggressive ICE enforcement.