16-year-old Manny Chavez broke down in tears during a Hillsboro City Council meeting on Tuesday as he decried President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and the ICE raids that have made him fear his own safety and that of his parents despite all of them being U.S. citizens.
Hillsboro, a Portland, Oregon, suburb with a significant Latino population, has been rocked by ICE raids; the Washington County Board of Commissioners last week declared a state of emergency in response to ICE activity.
Chavez, who went to the meeting to support two friends and members of his soccer team whose relatives had been detained by ICE in recent weeks, cried as he spoke of the fear he lives with and condemned "a president that acts like a child and doesn't side with us because of the way he thinks about us."
He said:
"I just want to tell you guys that I'm scared for my parents to walk out there, to walk out their house because I might not be able to say goodbye to them if they go to work. I might not ever be able to say 'bye' or see them again. I'm scared because of it, because they fought so hard to come here and choose a life for their kids."
"I'm scared that everyone that I love is not, I'm not going to be able to see them again, because even though they're US citizens, they don't care about us. I hope you guys do side with us because we are fighting for our rights and we are getting treated like animals because people judge us by the color of our skin and the way that we talk."
"And we have a president that acts like a child and doesn't side with us because of the way he thinks about us. And we have a police department that doesn't do anything about us and that we are here fighting more than they are. I hope that you guys actually do hear what everyone in this center is hearing or talking about and so you can listen to what everyone's saying because everyone is scared."
"I'm scared that I'm never gonna be able to see all my friends again, I'm scared that their parents are gonna be gone one day, I'm scared that all of us are gonna have to fend for ourselves, and I'm scared that one day at school I'm gonna get held by people I don't know, people that are covered, people that I can't identify because they wear masks and they don't properly ID themselves."
Chavez teared up and had to wipe his eyes more than once as he continued:
"I'm scared that everyone I love, that I'm not gonna be able to see them again because even though they're U.S. citizens they don't care about us. They treat us like dogs, they treat us like animals."
"No one here cares about us because of the color of our skin so I'm asking you guys, every one of you guys who are sitting up here to actually hear us and do something about it because I'm tired of telling my mom and dad every day after school, 'Have you seen the new video of ICE pulling someone over because of the color of their skin?'"
"I'm tired of it and I hope you guys really do something about it because I really do want something to change. I should not live like this as a 16 year old. I shouldn't be scared. I should be focusing on school—and I can't even focus on school."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
The footage of Chavez's remarks went viral and struck a chord with many.
Afterward, Councilor Cristian Salgado announced plans to establish a city Office of Civil and Human Rights, which would employ a coordinator to work closely with legal observers. Those observers would be dispatched when reports of possible ICE activity arise, tasked with documenting events in real time.
Salgado said community members are already recording ICE raids in the Portland suburb "and so we want someone to record those and log them and keep them on record.” He added that the city also intends to appoint a legal resource navigator to assist detained migrants and their families, as well as a low-barrier grant manager to help fund local initiatives.
Mayor Beach Pace noted that the city has already been allocating funds to support Latino organizations and businesses.
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