Whistles and chants echoed across both TR and NE Campus as students protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement in unison on Feb. 25.
“My family members are scared to leave their house,” said TR student Azeneth Triana as she held a Palestinian flag. “It’s sad to see. Beautiful people shouldn’t have to be afraid.”
Triana choked on her words as she said why she was protesting.
“Immigrants shouldn’t be afraid of being torn apart from their families,” she said.
TR students Landis Hinesly, Corrine Steele and Alexandria Williams coordinated their campus walkout while Sasha Crouch and Arlo Hewitt organized the NE protest.
Outside the Idea Store on TR, students stood on the curb of Cherry Street facing the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center right next to the jail.
“Hopefully, some people in there can be happy looking down at us,” Williams said.
Holding signs that read “Hate never made America great,” “Fight ignorance not immigration” and “Families belong together” while blowing whistles, students stood outside for two hours during the first 80-degree day in months.
Semi-trucks, banged-up Fords and even a Tesla honked in support as they passed, causing the crowd to roar even louder.
However, not all were glad to see the students. One person walked beside them asking if they were the future Karens of America while another individual in a car flipped students off.
“We have people coming out, recording us, standing over there,” Steele said. “I think it’s a really big statement.”
She said students were out to not just protest ICE but the entire government, and not just since Donald Trump was elected president.
“We are just fed up, and I’m ready to see some people care and change and do something,” Steele said.
Protest coordinators handed out whistle kits with instructions on how one can use it to warn the surrounding community of federal ICE agents.
“It’s three short blows if you see ICE, and three long blows if they’re detaining someone,” Williams said. “The best thing I can do is just try to bring people together and find ways to pass out information or give knowledge to the next person.”
TR organizers said there is more to caring than just saying you do. They put the walkout together to support students like Chris Martinez and Jenaro Vedia, who said they’ve both felt a rise in hate against immigrants.
“Unfortunately, the norm nowadays in America is that immigrants need to get out,” Martinez said. “So, having this here at TCC, I know at least bigotry doesn’t stand with this group of people.”
Vedia said the current administration’s idea of immigrants is wrong, but because people believe it, it’s become increasingly dangerous for immigrant families.
“Some people are from immigrant households, whose parents came here legally. So, they might have an accent but they’re still American,” he said. “So, if you have an accent or you’re slightly colored, you’re still getting attacked and detained.”
Fourteen miles away, student Chriss Aguirre marched around NE Campus chanting loudly with other students, passing out informative zines to others.
She said she printed about 100 of the zines the night before, some in English and some in Spanish. These zines outlined the rights of citizens and undocumented immigrants when confronted by federal agents.
“They have information on things to say if you’re approached by ICE, how to keep yourself safe and not make you a target,” Aguirre said. “How to get ICE alerts, which sends you texts whenever ICE is spotted in your ZIP code.”
Hewitt, who helped organize the protest, said the purpose was to spread awareness to students that their group doesn’t stand with ICE.
Waving signs and chanting phrases like “F*** ICE,” the group drew a few responses from others, some in support and others not.
While in his Bible study outside the library, Carlos Carranza shouted “Make America Great Again” as the protestors went by.
“ICE is technically doing their job. [They’re] just trying to remove illegal aliens, especially those who committed crimes,” Carranza said. “Even illegals, who came here to this country illegally, they also broke the law too.”
Vice Chancellor for Communications and External Affairs Reginald Gates said the college understands that students want to protest.
“We respect freedom of speech,” Gates said. “So, for our students, we’re here to support that.”
Police Chief Jay Tillerson said his department’s role is to make sure people are safe, even during a protest. He said he would appreciate it if students would reach out beforehand.
“We love coordinating that,” Tillerson said. “So, if we have questions or students need something, we have that dialogue.”
Steele said they believe nothing can go back to how it once was, because even then it wasn’t that great.
“It’s not just one against everyone. It’s all of us against them,” she said. “We are the ants, and the government’s the grasshoppers, brother.”
Instead, she said people must come together to curate change for a better future.
“I think that this works,” Steele said. “It may not work in this very moment, but in time it’s going to work because it has to.”
