Anonymous Protestor

A sign from a portest that took place after the school wakout at John Jay High School in Northside ISD. Courtesy of an Anonymous Protestor

Across San Antonio schools walked out during educational hours to protest actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) all throughout the week of Jan. 26 through Jan. 31.

Over the course of January, ICE was deployed to northern states, including Maine and Minnesota. Throughout these deployments, the federal agency was involved in violent encounters with civilians protesting in the streets, specifically in Minneapolis, sparking rage across the nation.

ICE presence up north is being mirrored in Texas as ICE is currently setting up checkpoints in cities across the state, including San Antonio, Canyon Lake, Dallas and Austin. Federal agents have been involved in incidents with citizens with high tensions arising between the groups according to local news sources such as KENS5.

 Across the San Antonio Metropolitan area, high school students have taken it upon themselves to express their disagreement to ICE’s recent actions.

“Our reason behind the walk-outs was to protest ICE and the injustice, hypocrisy and victim-blaming they’ve been showing,” an anonymous protester from Southwest High School in Southwest ISD said.

The sentiment spreads much further than just Southwest ISD  all the way to Judson ISD.

“We are protesting against ICE because we believe their enforcement tactics such as family separations and detentions are inhumane and inconsistent with the values of our community,” an anonymous protest organizer from Karen Wagner High School in Judson ISD said. 

The hope behind the protests is that they will capture the attention of all citizens regardless of age, race or economic status and encourage them to listen and step foward for the cause.

“It affects everybody and puts everyone at risk,” the protestor from Southwest said. “Nothing has happened to me, but that doesnt mean it won’t. It’s scary living in a state and country where I could easily be detained and taken without much due process just because I found myself at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The walk-outs are an expression of frustration and collective concern for the students’ communities in San Antonio and Texas, but the students don’t just come to protest: they come with specific requests.

“First, we want our school board to pass a resolution declaring this a sanctuary campus, ensuring no student data is shared with federal agents,” the organizer said. “Second, we want our local government to end its cooperation agreements with ICE. Finally, we want to spark a national conversation about the ethics of these detentions.”

These protests come with hope for the future and optimism for the impact they will leave.

“We aren’t just here to skip class; we’re here to show that our community belongs to all of us,” the organizer said. “We are calling on our leaders to choose compassion over fear and to make our schools a place where every student can dream without looking over their shoulder. This is just the beginning of our movement.”