Geovanna sat at home Monday night watching her brother Jordy's stream on Facebook Live from a protest in downtown Austin. She was proud of him, but also worried.
Jordy was one of the hundreds of people who marched from the Texas Capitol down Congress Avenue in solidarity with protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids.
Jordy is a U.S. citizen. Geovanna is not.
She's in the country without legal immigration status, and she doesn't feel safe going out to protests. KUT News is using only their first names because of concern for their family's safety.
Geovanna said she's been to protests before, but now, she doesn't feel safe attending.
"I love Austin, because I feel that it's a city that protects their people," she said. "Since the new president came in, I feel that our community is under attack — our Latin community, our immigrant community — and I just no longer feel safe in it."
Meanwhile, Jordy said he feels a sense of duty to speak up. Out of four siblings, he's one of two who were born in the U.S. At the protest, he said, he felt less alone.
"I saw a lot of signs of people saying, 'I'm doing this for my parents, I'm doing this for my family,' and that's something I was doing as well," he said.
Rosario is a family friend who was also watching the Facebook Live. She entered the country without a visa and has been in Austin for more than 20 years now. KUT is using her first name only because of safety concerns.
Rosario said she has seen her community affected by the Trump administration's immigration enforcement: kids are afraid to go to school; people don't want to leave their homes. Even celebrations, such as weddings, are being canceled for fear of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid. Last month 47 people were detained during a birthday party near Dripping Springs.
"Those who are going out to protests are giving it their all," Rosario said in Spanish.
While she's thankful people are standing up for immigrants' rights, she's also worried scenes of vandalism and arrests might make the community look bad — even though it's not just immigrants who are out on the street.
The Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested 13 people Monday night.
As Geovanna watched the protest online, she worried about her brother's safety. And even though he's a citizen, he said he's at risk at protests.
"I'm also brown," he said, "and that's what we've seen a lot that, you know, they don't care if you have papers as long as you're brown, they're gonna take you no matter what."
But that won't stop him from going to protests.
Jordy said he feels frustrated by the focus on the arrests. He said the true core of the demonstrations sometimes gets lost.
"It's not just against ICE," he said. "We're defending our morals and our values."
The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations released a statement in solidarity with the immigrant community ahead of more demonstrations this weekend. The union called for Texans' right to peacefully assemble and protest to be respected.
Geovana said she feels touched that so many people have been out on the streets demonstrating.
"The fact that white people, privileged people, go out and speak for us, it makes me feel a little bit of hope," she said, "knowing that not everybody wants to see us out of here, the United States."
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