Allan Hancock College Indivisible, the latest chapter of the nationwide movement, held a protest at the campus on Friday to raise awareness about federal immigration enforcement.

Indivisible is a grassroots organization opposing the Trump administration agenda while promoting progressive leaders and policies. The organization has several chapters in Santa Barbara County, including Santa Maria, Lompoc, Santa Barbara and Isla Vista. 

According to Caludia Santos Tellez, president of the student-run chapter at Allan Hancock College, they were approached by the Isla Vista chapter to hold a protest at Allan Hancock’s Santa Maria campus following the detainment of a student’s parent by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on campus last month.

Santos Tellez said the reason for Friday’s protest was to make students’ voices heard on campus. 

“No students should have fear to come to school, and being dropped off either,” she said. “They shouldn’t have a fear that their parents taking them to school will cause something like getting taken away.”

During the protest, about 40 attendees held signs and chanted while they walked around the borders of the campus, along Jones Street and College Drive. Among others present at the protest were 805UndocuFund as well as Christina Hernandez, who was elected mayor of Guadalupe on Tuesday.

Coco Jimenez, vice president of Indivisible at Allan Hancock College, said the group held a meeting on Wednesday to design the signs for the Friday protest. Additionally, the chapter promoted it on campus before the midterm elections to help people register to vote and inform them of propositions on the ballot.

In light of the recent election, in which Democrats won control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, both Jimenez and Santos Tellez were optimistic about the political direction of the country. 

“I’m really having high hopes to see ICE out of our community and out of everywhere, and we’re just hoping things could go back to how things were,” Santos Tellez said.

The chapter’s faculty co-advisers — Phillip Hamer and Jenny Schroeder — said the Allan Hancock College chapter began at the tail end of the last academic year and had a “slow start” following the summer.

Hamer said he and Schroeder have a “pretty hands-off” role in the chapter to allow the students to have the “strongest voice.”

Schroeder said the purpose of the chapter is to allow students to have a space where they can ask questions and engage in meaningful discussion.