 It is time to rise up and stop Abbott along with Charles Perry, the author of Disdiscriminating an Awful Bill. As an immigrant student at Austin Community College and someone that spends time at UT with ULI, as before would no longer make school a safe place for me. I fear if local universities please start acting like ICE, it would no longer be a place of learning or expanding. Immigration agents or even university cops acting like immigration agents have no place in our spaces of learning and education. I am a woman, a documented student, a worker, an older sister and a daughter. I am a trufadora and I am proud to be an immigrant. I have been here for 16 years, Dralpan, a little province in Mexico City. I will eternally carry in my heart, but Austin is the place I call home. This is my home, this is our home, and we will not, we will not allow our home to be infiltrated and contaminated by fear. We will not allow our mission and unfairly be questioned when they are doing nothing, nothing wrong. We will not allow our students, our undocumented LGBTQ community and our undocumented family at UT, our friends at ATC, our friends at Texas State, our friends in Houston, our friends in many other higher institutions in the state to be questioned when their one purpose is with good intentions to continue their education in order to provide a prosperous, safe and inspiring home for our community and for the generations of immigrants to come. Para mi comunidad le echamos ganas, hemos tomado riesgos, hemos dejado nuestras vidas en nuestros países, pero simplemente para tener un futuro brillante. Nuestras familias trabajan día y noche para asegurarse de que nuestros niños, hijos, hijas, hermanas y hermanos estén seguros en este país. Hasta niez Estado es nuestro hogar, ha sido nuestro hogar y seguirá siendo nuestro hogar. No nos venzamos, no nos rindamos de la misma manera que lo hemos hecho y que lo seguiremos haciendo. El apoyo y los recursos para que conozcan sus derechos están aquí. Todos estamos para apoyarnos los unos a los otros. Unidos como siempre lo hemos estado, tendremos poder en nuestras voces y en nuestras historias. Estamos aquí y definitivamente no nos vamos. We will stop as before because we are here to stay and we will not leave. Growing up was a low income immigrant student. I knew the power of education that will help me to find a better future for myself and my family in this country. I was lucky to attend and finish university with a bachelor's degree. During my time as an undergraduate student for the most part I felt safe and empowered when I walked around on campus because I felt that for the most part my diversity and others diversity whether immigrants, queer folks, people of color, Muslims, etc. We were celebrated and embraced. But Trump's hateful agenda is emboldening Texas officials like Governor Abbott, Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick and Senator Perry. And they are carrying out Trump's tyranny by asking campus police officers to enforce federal immigration laws. This encourages officers to racially profile students. And no student, no matter their status or background, should feel safe or welcome to go to school if their campus officers are asked to protect them only if they look like US citizens. The reality is that enforcing immigration laws doesn't keep students safe. Clearly, Abbott, Patrick, and Perry are not here to make students of color feel safe and respected. Here's a picture of me and my wife Carla celebrating Christmas. Harry on luggage, because I hope that we can one day travel or bond together. And it makes me sick knowing that she has to live in fear as an undocumented person, driving around Houston on her way to work. And then on her way home to spend time with me, because in Houston and Harris County, the local sheriff's office is still collaborating with federal immigration customs enforcement. Our own country, how can we make a life and a family together? And how can I keep my promise to her that we'll one day travel outside the US together? I'm here to fight hate. Thank you. I decided to pursue a career in social justice as a social worker. I'm a school social worker. I work with 11th and 12th graders. And I'm on the front lines of how this is affecting our families. How this is affecting their education, their ability to pursue a future in college and universities. They have dreams. These children have been taken away from their families. And I have a whole stack of letters from my students saying how much that this is going to affect them. I've seen it day in and day out. I have support groups. I have information. And it's still not enough. We need people to come together. We need your help. We need allies, Muslim allies, African American allies. We stand by you and we need your support. We want opportunities for others to have the same opportunity. They're leaving their countries because of danger, because of violence. We should open our doors and give them the opportunity to learn, to gain knowledge, and take that knowledge back.