On Jan. 29, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) and the Moreau Center will host a “Know Your Rights” training event from 5-7 p.m. in the Brian Doyle Auditorium in Dundon-Berchtold Hall (DB) with guest speakers from Catholic Charities of Oregon Immigration Legal Services (ILS).
The session will focus on the rights and resources available to community members in the face of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and will be led by Melissa Rodney, an accredited ILS Department of Justice representative.
The event will emphasize collective responsibility, encouraging people to learn their rights and pass that knowledge on to others in their community, according to Benjamin Barrero, MEChA co-president.
“Even if you’re not [directly] affected, how can we be serviceable to the people that we work with or have relationships with?” Barrero said. “It's just so important to know our own rights, but also be able to communicate that to other people.”
Barrero says that while the club’s first “Know Your Rights” event focused on how to respond to ICE, this training will delve into available rights and resources and ways to exercise them.
Kalena O’Connell is the News and Managing Editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at oconnell27@up.edu.
