Utah students walk out to protest ICE tactics: ‘Fascism has got to go’

Note to readers • This story is developing and being updated. Watch sltrib.com for additional coverage of shutdown events.

Utah students were walking out of classes Friday as part of the “National Shutdown” – which called for “no school, no work and no shopping” to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Around 8:30 a.m. in Park City, a couple of hundred students stood in the sunny, 22-degree morning chanting, “Hey ho, hey ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” and “Hey ho, hey ho, fascism has got to go.”

The group held a Mexican flag and American flags and handmade signs targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including, “ICE is better crushed.”

Walkouts have been announced at Utah middle and high schools around the state.

In Midvale at about 10 a.m., hundreds of students walked out of Hillcrest High School, also carrying signs against ICE, and off campus into the community.

Motorists honked as they flowed across Ft. Union Blvd.

Students from Bryant Middle School waved flags at the state Capitol after they walked out of school. A larger group of students from the Salt Lake Center for Science Education also marched to the Capitol.

The national action was planned to protest the actions of agents from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agencies’ agents killed Silverio Villegas González in a Chicago suburb in September, Keith “Pooter” Porter Jr. in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, and Renee Good and Alex Pretti less than a month apart in Minneapolis.

Utah businesses also are participating, with some planning to stay closed, trim hours or donate a portion of sales to Minnesota companies or efforts to support immigrants.

[Read more: These Utah businesses will close — or donate from their sales — Friday to protest Minnesota immigration crackdown]