“No fear, no hate! No ICE in our state!” So echoed the voices of dozens of impassioned students, ranging from bright-eyed 6th graders to seniors to faculty members alike. Brandishing colorful signs and bundled up in winter coats, these individuals peacefully marched down to the lower school protesting the recent actions of ICE– the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Academy walkout certainly didn’t emerge in a vacuum, with ICE actions over the past few weeks triggering protests across the nation. Although anger has been bubbling among Americans as a whole when it comes to ICE’s actions over the past year (polling from December indicated that Americans had already turned on Trump on immigration policy), tensions have come to a head in the aftermath of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis amidst an immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities. Although some detractors have argued that ICE agents were within their rights to open fire, the vast majority of Americans disagree, with polling indicating that about two thirds of Americans disapprove of ICE’s tactics. Anger culminated first in protests and even a Minneapolis-wide strike on January 23rd, followed by nationwide protests last Friday that coincided with the walkout at Academy.
A significant element of these nationwide protests have been a student-led movement in which students leave the classroom or “walk-out” as a group to protest ICE’s tactics. On Friday, the Albuquerque Academy community joined in on the movement. Organized by the Academy Amnesty International club, the protestors met in the 10-12 quad and marched down to the security gate, before returning to the upper school campus. Students carried many different hand-drawn signs that conveyed their impassioned message. For example, we noted one student who compared the institution of ICE to the brutality witnessed in Germany in 1933 as civilians were kidnapped and alienated from their communities. Other students took sign inspiration from pop culture phenomena, such as “Heated Rivalry,” with one sign reading “the only ICE I like has Shane and Ilya on it.” “Spread love and not violence,” stated one young protestor, emphasizing the peaceful nature of the walk-out movement…