Standing together

It was an unusually warm February afternoon outside Kennedy Union, as the community gathered — not to soak up the sunshine, but to listen, support and take a stand.

The Rally for Peace — organized by the director of the Center for Social Concern, Meaghan Crowley,  junior psychology and international studies major Elisabeth Jacobsen and junior early childhood education major Yara Medina — brought UD students, faculty and staff together in support of the immigrant community and to speak out against recent actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Speakers shared stories of family, bravery, love and hard work, offering firsthand accounts of their struggles and pride as children of immigrants. And their fear.

“That fear does not clock out when I walk into class. It does not disappear when I take an exam. It does not fade when I smile in pictures. It lives in my chest,” said Nancy Garcia, a senior psychology and criminal justice major. "I have sat in lecture halls scrolling through the news, my heart racing. I have tried to focus on assignments while wondering how new laws might ripple through my life. I have celebrated accomplishments while silently thinking, 'Will everything be okay?'"

But for Garcia and so many others, fear has now found its way into that normalcy, she said. On top of the normal daily stress of college life, she faces the fear that a headline could change her world overnight.

Senior Stuart Schramm, Student Government Association president, spoke to community members gathered at the rally, encouraging them to stand with the thousands of others with stories like Garcia’s.

“Students have always been at the forefront of movements for justice,” said Schramm.

“We refuse to look away. We check in on our friends, we educate ourselves, we vote, we volunteer and we advocate. But most importantly, it means that when anyone in our community is targeted, marginalized or dehumanized, we all are.”

Garcia said she will keep going.

“ … this is what it means to be an American,” she said, “To live fully, to love fiercely, to succeed loudly, while quietly holding my breath and hoping that ‘todo bien’ is still true tomorrow.”