What Students Thought of the California AG's Trump Rebuttal

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra used his national stage to reach out to immigrants in the first-ever live Spanish language response to  President Trump's State of the Union Tuesday night.

Becerra spoke at his alma mater, McClatchy High School in Sacramento. A group of teenagers sat quietly and watched while Becerra delivered his live rebuttal in their school's library. But once the camera was off they burst into excited chatter.

Senior Mirelle Gutierrez is Latina and said Becerra’s speech felt hopeful at a time when she’s hearing a lot of negative things about people like her.

“The fact that I’m constantly seeing myself being targeted on the screen, it’s really nice to know that we actually have someone out there who is just like us who is fighting for us," she said.

Senior Hanaa Al Nassiry’s grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Yemen. And even though she’s not Hispanic, she said she relates to Becerra, whose parents were also immigrants.

“We all came here from our own country, and we all just seek the same thing," she said. "Better education for ourselves, better education for our children."

Sophomore Erika Razo’s father came to the U.S. from Mexico. She resents the message from Trump that immigrants hurt the country.

“Immigrants aren’t here to just take our jobs," she said. "They’re building their way up. They’re coming up in the community.”

Trump maintains the U.S. needs better border security and has threatened to declare a national emergency to get a border wall built. In his speech, Becerra said he’ll take Trump to court if he makes the declaration.

"The idea of declaring a nonexistent state of emergency on the border — in order to justify robbing funds that belong to the victims of fires, floods, hurricanes and droughts — to pay for the wall is not only immoral, it is illegal," Becerra said.

But some students were supportive of Trump. Junior Deven Johnston said he likes what Trump has done for the economy, and he said the country needs to fix its immigration system.

"I don't think illegal immigrants should be able to enter whenever they want. They should be able to go through a system," he said. "I do think that that system should be faster and should be better for people who need safety."

In his speech, Becerra encouraged young people to vote and said kids like the ones at McClatchy can change the direction of the country.