Humboldt organizations bring activism to campus amidst current political climate

By Gina Muñoz and Ryan Diaz additional reporting by Ocean Edgar

On Jan. 27 at 11 a.m., over 25 people marched from the Josiah Lawson Mural to the SAC Quad on campus in protest of Trump’s right-wing policies. The march was led by the Humboldt chapter of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), a student-run organization that started in the 1960s during the anti-war movement.

Participants shared their anxieties over the path the new administration is taking, with many pointing out its similarities to fascist countries and their rise to power.

“This is an especially frightening time given the immediacy of the executive actions that Trump is putting in place,” said Jasmine, a speaker at the march. “We’re continuing to move in the direction of American exceptionalism as if we can do anything without consequence and that’s really dangerous.”

Just on inauguration day Trump signed over 25 executive orders (US TODAY), including “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” which will limit entry of immigrants and refugees, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” which will undermine Alaska Native’s self-determinations and sovereignty over their ancestral land and “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” which will affect gender non-conforming and transgender people. 

Former editor-in-chief of El Leñador, Peyton Leone was present during the protest on behalf of El Centro del Pueblo, a local organization providing space for immigrants, indigenous people of the south and the Latine community, where he works as a research and communications specialist. His main concern is mass deportations.

“Personally I am a part of this community up here, and I don’t want to see anyone leave through Donald Trump’s deportation policies,”  Leone said. 

As of Jan. 26, the Trump administration issued a new quota requiring all ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) offices to arrest and detain at least 75 people per day, equaling over 1,800 people across all 25 ICE offices in the US. Since Trump took office, over 4,000 people have been arrested by ICE. 

“They are going to point to the worst people in our community to try and justify it,” Leone said. “They’re going to say ‘oh, they’re felons, they’re criminals,’ but Trump is literally a felon. It shows that two different systems are working here and they are trying to remove our community, they’re promising it. But we’re not going to let that happen.” 

While the new administration has claimed that only “criminals” will be detained and deported, many people without criminal records have been targeted. On Jan. 28, The Washington Post reported on a group of 200 Colombian people who were deported, not a single one of them had a criminal record. Additionally, US citizens are getting targeted too. An NBC News report details Navajo Nation citizens, veterans and a Puerto Rican family, all of which were US citizens, being detained and questioned by ICE. 

Additionally, many attendees are concerned about Trump’s “two-genders only” policy and how that will undermine LGBTQ+ people’s access to gender-affirming care, overall safety and well-being. Johnny Glaunert, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and speaker at the event, expresses that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, he’s worried of how Trump’s policies will affect him and his community.

“In his first term he rolled back transgender rights and that directly affected my loved ones and their ability to live openly, safely and with dignity,” Glaunert said. “In this term, he will stick to that plan of emboldening anti-trans rhetoric and emboldening the worst in our society or he could even ramp that up.”

Rick Toledo, a representative with SDS and main organizer of the march, said the rally was meant to unite people with a common cause. 

“We don’t like conflict but it’s the only way we have found that we can be heard,” Toledo said. “It’s by organizing protests and getting together and standing together against these things because otherwise our voices just get drowned out by people that are more powerful than us.”