La Sierra High School students in Riverside walk out of class to protest Trump's deportation push
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- More than 100 students from La Sierra High School in Riverside walked out of class on Friday to protest President Donald Trump's deportation push.
"Some people are worried about ICE, and them getting taken away," said one student.
"Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but we're trying to let everybody know - where we come from is important," said another student.
These students were protesting President Trump's vow to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants.
"Everybody that I know could very well be taken just because of their skin color. They can be taken from churches, hospitals, all of this stuff that should never occur," said another student.
But some say marches like these are only making the situation worse.
"If the truth were told, by both sides, then we wouldn't have this panic in our communities," said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Bianco said local law enforcement is not in the process of trying to deport people - that's against state law.
MORE: Riverside County deputies won't conduct immigration raids: Sheriff
What they can do is answer questions the federal government might ask, he said. For example, questions about particular inmates in the county jail.
"Everyone who goes to jail gets fingerprinted, and so all that information they have access to. And so some people are going to go in and take their fingerprints, and it's immediately going to flag this person is on a terror watch list, or this person is nonexistent, we know nothing about this person, and then they have to look into it and find out why. Is it a person who's never had contact with law enforcement and it's their first arrest? Which is possible. Or is it someone from another country?" Bianco said.
The sheriff says his primary concern is that given the tensions, people will be afraid to call law enforcement to report crime.
"Leading up to President Trump being sworn in, there was a drastic decrease in the amount of crimes being reported from what we realize are areas that are predominantly immigrant, so that is our fear. We cannot have people in Riverside County afraid to call us when they are victimized," Bianco said.
MORE: Resources available to immigrants amid Trump's immigration plan
