On Thursday March 3rd, various members of The Youth and Young Adult Network of the National Farmworker Ministry (YAYA) were present, on a school night, at UCF’s Student Union. They came to support Resolution 43-23, which was introduced by members of the Progressive Caucus of the UCF College Democrats in order to poll the UCF student body with the following question:
“Do you support or not support the State passing legislation that mandates local law enforcement agencies to detain individuals through techniques that have raised concerns of racial profiling in similar legislation, in order to verify immigration status?”
This question would be present on the ballot for the UCF student presidential elections; it would basically be a way to successfully poll a large population. Depending on the results of the polling, however, UCF would be able to put out a referendum stating that it, UCF, was against these bills.
Sadly, the question was changed to a form that would not raise the issue at hand: racial profiling. Opposition removed “racial profiling” from the wording of the question. The framers of Resolution 43-23 vowed to come back and re-introduce the issue at hand.
Now, it is self evident that this event was really important for YAYA’s agenda to support a national network of young people actively working to change the oppressive social, political and economic conditions of farm workers.
Thanks for reading, for further information, you may read this post in the Vanguard Voice.
-Juan Barredo
Orlando YAYA
