Recent graduate Alex Gomez-Ordonez didn’t know the Montgomery Blair High School classmate who student leaders say was recently deported, but for the 18-year-old, the act was an attack on his school community.
“As a fellow Blazer, all Blazers must take part to support [them] in this time of darkness,” Gomez-Ordonez told Bethesda Today outside the Silver Spring school on Thursday afternoon. “It’s our time now to take the fight against this systemic racism.”
Gomez-Ordonez, who graduated June 4, joined hundreds of Blair students who walked out of the school Thursday afternoon in protest of recent actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including the recent deportation of one of their peers, according to the Montgomery Blair Students For Asylum and Immigration Reform (FAIR) organization.
“Last week, one of our classmates was deported,” the group said on social media on Tuesday. “We’re heartbroken, we’re angry and we’re not staying silent.”
According to a school staff member, the student who was deported was 18 and wasn’t taken from the school campus. MCPS spokesperson Liliana López said in an email that the district is unable to confirm any information concerning a deportation due to privacy restrictions.
ICE has been intensifying efforts to deport immigrants across the country at the direction of President Donald Trump, including picking up migrant workers in an Italian restaurant in San Diego, detaining a high school volleyball player in Massachusetts and arresting those who entered the U.S. legally at courthouses, according to Reuters.
The Montgomery County police department will not take part in immigration enforcement, Chief Marc Yamada said Monday during a District 18 Democratic Breakfast Club meeting at Parkway Deli in Silver Spring.
“I do not care, my officers don’t care where you were born. We don’t care what language you speak,” Yamada said. “We don’t care what the color of your skin is, our officers will never inquire about your immigration status, and our goal is simply to provide you with the best services possible.”
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) said in November following Trump’s election that schools will remain a safe space for children regardless of immigration status.
Still, fears and impacts on the Montgomery County community remain. Alex Vazquez, the director of organizing for CASA, a Maryland-based immigrants’ rights organization, told Bethesda Today on Thursday that students have been impacted by the changes, including the student who was recently deported.
Shortly after noon on Thursday, hundreds of students poured out of Blair, holding signs, chanting and yelling in response to student speakers. Bethesda Today reporters were prevented by school security staff from accessing the campus and watched from nearby sidewalks. The students gathered in front of the building before walking around the campus for about one hour.
Gomez-Ordonez said the recent actions of ICE and the federal government were attacks on Latinos and Latino students. He said those actions were an “outrage.”
“We’re the new seeds of this future of this United States in America,” Gomez-Ordonez said. “This has been utterly a shock and a huge betrayal against the young generation.”
On the sidewalk outside the school, community members, parents and others gathered in support of the students. CASA’s Vazquez said it was empowering to see the younger generation “step up” to address issues impacting their communities.
“What we’re seeing right now is the greatest sign of just being in community with one another,” Vazquez said.
Cathy Johnson, a retired MCPS elementary school paraeducator, came to the school attended by many of her former elementary school students to show her support.
“These are our kids, and the federal government shouldn’t be threatening them,” Johnson told Bethesda Today. “It’s our community.”
Bethesda Today intern Max Schaeffer contributed to this report.
