Students gathered outside Orem City Hall to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Feb. 20.
"Me and my parents are afraid of ICE. We're from Mexico, and we came here. It's been hard," Sandra Sajuan, a protester, said. “I'm scared about them going to work and then not coming back home. What about me and my sisters?”
Sajuan has four sisters and two brothers.
"I'm speaking for the ones who are afraid to speak out," Sajuan said.
Sajuan hopes people will feel supported by the protest. Her older sister, Veronica Wright, came with her to the protest.
"I'm Hispanic Mexican, and we have a big family heart," Wright said. “In Mexico, there's not a lot of college, especially that's affordable. We're just here to have the American dream, that's what I just keep thinking, this is the American dream."
Wright said she wants people to know that she and her family are here to find a better way of living, a place with more opportunities.
"We are just here to live, to have the American dream, what everyone else came here for, to raise your family, have a business if you want, to have choices," Wright said.
Wright attended her first protest in 2008.
"I went with my stepdad, and I lived in Las Vegas, and we did a 10-hour march. This is a lot smaller than that, but it's still getting our voices out there, being heard, being voices for those who are too scared," Wright said. “I'm perfectly fine to be that voice. I don't mind hate, I don't mind any of the backlash. I will stand here for the people who can't talk themselves."
Students came from several different schools in Utah County.