By: Mariangela Velazquez
“I think it really scares a lot of people, and I see that it affects my students when that happens. They’re really worried about people they know, family members. I also sometimes treat what I hear in the media with a lot of skepticism because I do think that they have a lot to gain by scaring people. I think they do it in lots of different areas, but my overarching opinion is that the system hurts people, and it has for a long time. I think our politicians use it to manipulate votes, and they’re not taking into account how devastating the effects are of our broken immigration system,” said Shannon Lasater.
“ICE’s presence in Bakersfield and all over the country is very scary for a lot of our communities, and it has become very out of control and unconstitutional regarding your political standing. What we see in the media is the truth, and what we see in the media is families being hunted down,” said Andrea Guevara.
“I am not in support of ICE being in Bakersfield. I think that their presence is more of a disruption, a distraction to the people that are living here who are trying to find an honest living and improve the standing of their lives and their families’ lives,” said Jesus Meraz.
“I feel like it is excessive if I am being honest with you. They just left Bakersfield a couple months ago, if I am correct. But at the same time, I understand the ICE situation, because there’s some immigrants that do bad, but at the same time, they really don’t capture themselves taking those kinds of immigrants down. They capture themselves taking hard-working immigrants, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. So I’m not too happy about it,” said Sebastian Castañeda.
“I feel like its a form of intimidation to the public so the people can feel scared to leave and go to work which causes a lot of disturbance and it effects the city because the economy seems to be really effected because the more people don’t show up for work, the more production lowers everywhere which effects everything so it is very important that the government checks up on how ICE is affecting the community,” said Adelaida Osuna.
“The presence of ICE in our community has become rather disruptive to the economic and social dynamics of our community here in Bakersfield, given that their presence intimidates those who are not considered to be living ‘legally’ in the United States. It stops them from participating fully and freely in our community,” Victor Arrieta.
