The Student Governing Association unanimously voted in favor of their resolution for a swift replacement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and a resolution to denounce “’alt-right’ white supremacy” on campus Thursday.
Accompanying the unanimous votes were two DACA recipients who spoke during the first open period of the meeting: Priscila Aguero, senior in finance, and Evelyn Lucio, sophomore in American ethnic studies.
Aguero was born in Mexico, but her parents brought her to America with her 3-year-old brother when she was in sixth grade, she said. She did not learn she was undocumented until she went to get her driver’s license, and many colleges would not accept her.
Evelyn Lucio said despite being born in America, she was treated as a criminal and assumed to be a “dropout single mother” in her cleaning job.
“I am like a criminal,” Aguero said. “I feel like I belong in this country, but sometimes things don’t feel right.”
In his speech regarding his DACA resolution, Stephen Kucera, graduate student in accounting and student support director, said DACA recipients are often considered to be “too Mexican to be American, and too American to be Mexican,” which leaves them as people without a country.
“Some people think that power is the ability to exercise justice and execute that justice,” Kucera said. “There might be every legal justification to remove the DACA protections or to deport these individuals, but … true power is granting grace instead of executing justice.”
Ryan Kelly, junior in civil engineering and communication studies and a student senator, said his resolution denouncing white supremacy was important for protecting non-white students who feel afraid.
“When students of color have to walk around campus in pairs … when those same students can’t even show up to the rally that was in support of them because they’re scared of students with guns on campus, we know that there is a problem,” Kelly said.
The resolution completely denounced the ideology of the “alt-right,” stating that white supremacism is not welcome.
The DACA resolution will be sent to Kansas senators and representatives, and both resolutions will be sent to various leaders and departmental heads around campus.
The SGA also enacted their resolution to return unused funds of various campus organizations to K-State’s Reserve for Contingencies Account, returning a total of $28,491.
