Students from more than 200 Colorado schools streamed out of classrooms Friday afternoon with angry pleas for federal immigration agents to halt raids targeting their classmates, neighbors, coworkers and community members.
The walkout, organized by student-led organizations including the Colorado Youth Coalition, sent hundreds of students from the Denver metro area to the city’s La Alma-Lincoln Park. They carried signs with one short, sharp message for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials: “Stop tearing families apart. #IceOut”
“It’s honestly so sickening to come home from school, open my phone and see just terrible, terrible stories online of families getting separated and children getting deported and kidnapped by ICE,” Bre Kennedy, a junior at Grandview High School in Aurora and a cofounder of the Colorado Youth Coalition, told The Colorado Sun. “We are living on stolen land and borders are imaginary lines, and to see such horrible people do such horrible things is just so sickening.”
The protest is the latest outcry in Colorado as communities across the state have railed against federal agents detaining immigrants, most of whom have never been convicted of a crime.
In August, Glenwood Springs residents backed city council members in taking legal action to try to close a detention center in a local shopping center. Meanwhile, Gunnison County Sheriff Adam Murdie publicly declared that he will stop working with ICE agents. And residents of Hudson turned out to a July town council meeting in droves to stop what some called a “concentration camp” from opening in a former private prison.
The majority of the afternoon’s protest at La Alma-Lincoln Park played out peacefully, but the atmosphere took a tense turn when an adult counterprotester walked toward the park, holding a sign that read “I heart ICE.” A surge of students pounced on the man, following him and chanting, “Nazi scum off our streets!”
A student eventually destroyed his sign. When he returned about two hours after the walkout started, a crowd of students bolted after him, throwing water bottles at him. One student struck him in the back of the head with a metal water bottle and he darted off, still trailed by students.
A counterprotestor has water thrown at them as they are chased out of La Alma-Lincoln Park during a student walkout Friday at La Alma-Lincoln Park in Denver. The students are protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity near and within schools. (Cheney Orr, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Organizers of the walkout urged students to ignore the man, saying he was simply trying to agitate them.
Denver police officers showed up to the scene shortly after the assault, prompting student protesters to begin marching throughout the streets.
“Stay in unison,” one protest leader shouted. “There are cops everywhere.”
As students were about to start their march down the street, a police officer notified them they were breaking the law and would be arrested if they did not leave the street. Students shifted to the sidewalk, matching and chanting, “No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here!”
Students marched for more than a half hour as the temperature surged past 90 degrees. They continued chanting for most of their walk, at times shouting profanities against ICE and President Donald Trump.
Emotions remained high throughout the demonstration. Despite flashes of anger from students, the crowd participated in the protest with the spirit of a pep rally as a DJ blared music, food trucks posted up nearby and kids danced the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide.
Organizers hoped that a mass of students opting to condemn federal immigration authorities rather than attending class would send a strong message to adults, especially those in office.
“I hope adults in power can see this and see so many kids standing up and say, ‘Really this is an issue that maybe I should start caring more about and fighting for more,” Bre, cofounder of the Colorado Youth Coalition, said. “We can’t vote. We don’t have a way to get our voice heard in politics. And walking out of class, (we are) showing our teachers, showing our fellow classmates, showing those who are here today we are here to do what’s right.”
A counterprotester is heckled and chased away from the Denver student anti-ICE walkout on Sept. 4, 2026. (Erica Breunlin, The Colorado Sun)
Students also heard from democratic socialist Melat Kiros, a candidate in the 1st Congressional District race who urged the crowd to continue finding ways to stand up for immigrants and to elect people who reflect their values when they get their chance to cast a ballot.
“Students have always been on the front line of change,” Kiros told demonstrators from a stage in the park. “You have always been at the front line of progress and on the right side of history. Please do not let this action be your one and only action. There is so much work to do to protect our immigrant neighbors, and young people are going to be the reason things change. I know a lot of y’all might not be allowed to vote just yet, but your time is coming.”
Zariah Whitfield, a senior at Denver North High School, arrived at the park waving a sign that read, “No human is illegal. They blame immigrants so you won’t blame billionaires. We are students not criminals. Melt ICE!”
Hendrix Jimenez, 17, speaks through a megaphone as hundreds of high school students stage a walkout Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Denver. The students protested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity near and within schools. (Cheney Orr, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Zariah, 17, has experienced a mix of heartache and anger as ICE has separated families, describing their actions as inhumane and their ideologies as racist.
“I want people to understand that this isn’t normal,” Zariah said. “This is not OK and that these are human beings who live lives that they’re disrupting and completely destroying.”
When asked what message they would give ICE agents, Zariah said, “I see humans, but I don’t see humanity.”
Max Mankoff, a student at the University of Denver, took part in the walkout as an act of solidarity with immigrants. Mankoff is Jewish and belongs to the Jews Against ICE Coalition, a new group engaging in rallies and protests.
“I feel like it’s absolutely our duty as Jewish people to stand up for the people in our communities who are at risk right now,” Mankoff, 26, said. “We know what this looks like and we know what this leads to and it’s really our sacred obligation to fight against it.”
Mankoff dubbed ICE a terrorist group and said they worry about how little the public understands about conditions in detention centers.
Among the latest questions that operators of an Aurora detention center refused to answer was whether a case of tuberculosis led to a spread of the potentially fatal infectious disease throughout the crowded facility.
“The things that we are hearing are terrible,” Mankoff said, “but I can’t stop thinking about what we don’t know and what’s going on behind closed doors.”
Type of Story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.