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

Greyson, an 8th grader, walked out of Clayton Middle School with more than 150 other students Friday to rally against tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. For him, he said, the demonstration was personal.

He described himself as “half Mexican,” and said of his family: “We do not support ICE. We think everything they do is wrong.” He said he hoped the walkout at his school would send a “powerful message.”

As he spoke, another student climbed atop a concrete ledge and started leading the young Salt Lake City crowd in chants: “No fear. No hate. No ICE in our state.” The number of kids participating, Greyson said, “alludes to how bad the situation is right now.”

The classmates were among hundreds who walked out in Utah, joining the “National Shutdown” – which called for “no school, no work and no shopping” to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

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

Students chanted in the 22-degree chill of morning in Park City, walked with signs through Midvale and other communities, and marched to the Capitol from nearby Salt Lake City schools.

The nationwide 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.

The Trump administration has said that its immigration policies make the country safer, with operations removing “countless dangerous criminal illegals,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement earlier this week.

Around 8:30 a.m. in Park City, a couple of hundred students stood in the cold 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.”

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.

At Clayton Middle School, 7th grader Lauren Behjani and four of her friends were among the first to leave classes. “I feel like what’s going on in our country is just so awful,” she said.

Referring to ICE actions in Minnesota, Behjani said, “People deserve better than that, and everyone should be treated equally because we’re all human.”

Ava Tardanico, another 7th grader standing with Behjani, said she hoped the protest showed that “young people can also make a difference.” They are the “future of the world” after all, she said.

“Young people have opinions too,” Tardanico said. “They can also stand up and show that everyone deserves their rights.”