Jonathan Perez is a queer undocumented political exile from Colombia, and a Co-Founder of the Immigrant Youth Coalition in Southern California. He began his activism in the 10th grade while attending one of the most overcrowded high schools in the nation. Perez organized successfully to stop punitive discipline policies and successfully led a campaign to build 3 new schools in his community in Los Angeles. He soon realized that he could no longer remain in the shadows. The youth who looked up to him, many of whom who were also undocumented, pushed him into immigrants' rights work. His journey has taken him from civil disobedience to being locked up in an immigration detention center.