On Feb. 17, Unbreakable Upsilon, the university’s Lambda Pi Upsilon Chapter, held a poster making session from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. followed by a march around campus. About 20 to 30 students participated in the rally, protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the United States.
Lambda Pi Upsilon is a sorority founded in 1992 at SUNY Geneseo to address issues that Latinas face in their lives and communities. The university’s chapter, Unbreakable Upsilon, was founded in 2015 and is among 24 active undergraduate chapters, and one of five in Connecticut.
The poster-making occurred in the Bartels Fireplace Lounge where students created posters that included messages like “Stop pretending your racism is patriotism” and “First they came for the immigrants… silence is complicity!”
Christina Perricone, a psychology major and President of Unbreakable Upsilon, discussed how this event came to be.
“We exist to empower ourselves through positive, political and social actions within our communities and the greater global community and with everything that’s going on (ICE activity) we felt as if it was our duty to speak out for those who might be too afraid to speak out for themselves,” she said.
Perricone also discussed the need for people to look out for those being impacted by immigration enforcement that doesn’t just appear on the news, including families, friends and neighbors.
Melanie Jimenez Jofre, a member of Lambda Pi Upsilon, also shared a similar statement regarding the reasoning behind the event.
“We have people that are facing harsh deportations, separated from their loved ones, and living in constant fear because of a system connected to the United States ICE enforcement,” Jimenez Jofre said. “Families are being torn apart, students are worried about their futures, and parents are afraid to go to work. Kids are afraid to come home and not see their parents and that is not ok, which is why we are here today to protest against ICE.”
The march began after Perricone delivered a short speech. The protestors then marched around campus, chanting slogans like “ICE melts today” and “No justice no peace no ICE in our streets.”
The march route went around locations such as Maxcy Hall and the Beckerman Recreation Center, as well as dorms including Gerber Hall, Bixler Hall, Sheffield Hall and Westside Hall. The protest came amidst the current shutdown of the Department of the Homeland Security (DHS) which ICE operates under, and walkouts and protests from schools and universities nationwide.
Some other students who made posters and marched around campus explained why they took part.
Nikki Rosario, a marine biology and environmental sciences student and the president of the university’s Latin American Student Association (LASA) said, “I’m taking part of this because my community is being threatened and I feel like more of us need to speak up. My mom didn’t come to this country for no reason, and I think it would be disheartening for me to not speak up when she was once an immigrant who came here for a better purpose and I think we should educate people on the real reason that immigrants come to this country and realize that no one is illegal on stolen land.”
Kaitlyn Carpenter, a marine biology major said, “I believe as a human in general it’s a needed thing to do because right now there’s murder going on, families are going missing and just as a human in general, it’s inhumane to watch this and sit silent.”
