The Los Angeles Unified school board on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution aimed at making LAUSD campuses safer for immigrant students and their families who might face deportation or detainment by ICE agents. The resolution, proposed by board members Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez, comes shortly after the arrest of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant who was detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents as he
took his daughter to school on Feb. 28 in Highland Park. ICE officials said Avelica-Gonzalez was targeted because of prior criminal convictions, including a DUI conviction from 2009 and an outstanding order of removal from 2014.“My father was detained in front of me on Feb. 28 on the way to school,” said Fatima Avelica, 13, who recorded her father’s arrest with her phone. She and her sister Yuleni Avelica, 12, joined Garcia, Rodriguez and other organizers behind the resolution at a press conference Tuesday morning ahead of the board vote. READ MORE