Chanting “Abolish ICE” and “Sí se puede,” thousands of students across the Bay Area walked out of their classes Friday and rallied in opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, following the deaths of two people this month at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
High school and college students in Oakland, Danville, Castro Valley, Santa Clara and San Mateo took to the streets, while numerous businesses across the region closed their doors or donated their profits to immigrant groups in solidarity. They joined scores of similar protests in nearly every state across the nation, each calling for a “national shutdown” to end ICE funding and a stop to the agency’s “terror” campaign.
Holding a sign proclaiming “Skipping our lesson to teach you one,” Gladys Pablo Mendoza, 18, railed against federal agents and the viral videos depicting them snatching residents from their homes and neighborhoods. She stood among hundreds of people in Oakland’s Fruitvale Public Market, where a parade of high school and college students stepped, one by one, to a microphone to decry the federal crackdown.
“We came here to fight for our American Dream, and build a better future,” said Pablo Mendoza, 18, a student at Alternatives in Action High School in Oakland. “My parents fought hard to come here and give me an education. We’re human as well — we’re all the same.”
Across the bay in South San Francisco, El Camino High School senior Alejandra Argueta stressed that staying silent is no longer an option.
“Just because it’s not happening to you doesn’t mean you’re supposed to sit back and watch everything unfold,” said Argueta, 17, while suggesting “it’s only a matter of time until things get worse” in the Bay Area.
The latest convulsion followed a similar wave of school and work stoppages a week ago in Minneapolis, where President Donald Trump dispatched thousands of federal immigration agents in one of the largest and most brazen immigration crackdowns of his year-old second term. The subsequent deaths of Minneapolis mother Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents has sparked renewed national furor over the crackdown while prompting the Department of Homeland Security to begin changing its tactics in the region.
Already this week, hundreds of students walked out of classes in the East Bay and the South Bay in protest of ICE’s actions, garnering national attention with scenes of teenagers flooding the streets outside a San Leandro high school and San Jose students marching to chants of “No ICE! No wall! Free the families, free them all!”
On Friday, at least 400 students and community members gathered at Santa Clara University’s Bronco Statue, shouting “Let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here.” Several speakers framed the protest as part of a broader fight over free expression, political engagement and the future role of young people in public life.
“I refuse to inherit a world in which these injustices exist,” said Gavin Brunsman, a religious studies senior at the South Bay university. “Gen Z, we are growing up, we are entering the ‘real world,’ and we have the power to create a world that reciprocates, that creates equal opportunity, that provides justice to each and every community.”
In the East Bay, hundreds of students marched through the streets of Castro Valley, eliciting honks from passing motorists and holding signs proclaiming “Jesus said: Love thy neighbor” and “Beat fascism,” according to a livestream provided by Castro Valley News. On the Peninsula, hundreds more students walked through downtown San Mateo around noon, rallying in San Mateo Central Park and prompting a traffic advisory from local officials.
At Stanford University, students skipped class and gathered at White Plaza out of frustration with the systematic targeting of marginalized communities across the country. One of those students, Kylan Denney, emphasized that “everyone is implicated and everyone is affected, whether we like it or not.”
“For me, this isn’t a single tragedy — it’s one of many,” said Denney, an international relations major. “There are so many people who haven’t had strikes called in their name or people walk out for them.”
To the east in Danville, at least two dozen students from The Athenian School marched to Blackhawk Plaza, joining numerous other students from elsewhere in the region. One of their teachers, humanities instructor Stephanie McGraw, said the spirit of the school embodies the American ideal of many cultures coming together and creating peace through common ideas.
“I’m proud they’re doing something to be heard and to let people know where they stand,” McGraw said. “They’re standing up for their voice.”
While the students took the the street, many business owners acknowledged the day’s protests, either by closing down, or by donating some of their proceeds to immigration-support organizations. All Touchstone Climbing gyms in California shut its doors for the day, including multiple locations in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco and single locations in San Jose and Concord.
The Moment Japantown store in San Jose shut its doors for the day, saying in a social media post that “we refuse to operate ‘business as usual.’” The same went for the owners of Edo’s Salon on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.
“It feels impossible to conduct business as usual while members of our community are being denied basic human dignity,” the salon’s owners wrote in a social media post. “For us, there is no true beauty without humanity.”
Some businesses, including Academic Coffee in San Jose and Prizefighter Bar in Oakland, stayed open but donated some or all of their proceeds to nonprofit organizations supporting immigrant communities. The San Jose Museum of Art offered free admission “to provide our community a space for reflection, healing and connection” and the Japanese American Museum in San Jose also opened its doors, saying that “We welcome anyone seeking to learn from the past— from our past— in hopes that our stories and experiences shed light on what can happen when no one speaks up and no one resists.”
The discord came as Trump’s administration appeared to somewhat shift its tone and strategy, amid growing furor over the rounding up of migrants in Minneapolis and beyond.
For the first time Friday, the Department of Justice said it would initiate a civil rights investigation into the death of Pretti, the Minneapolis nurse who was fatally shot 10 times by federal agents after having been disarmed of his legally-owned firearm, according to The New York Times. The announcement followed weeks of stonewalling by federal authorities following the death of Pretti — who was initially labeled a “would-be assassin” by the Trump administration — and the fatal shooting of Good, who also was called a “domestic terrorist” by members of Trump’s cabinet.
Also, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, suggested that federal agents may revert to more targeted operations, according to a Reuters report. That came despite Trump telling reporters that his administration was “not at all” pulling back its campaign in Minneapolis, the outlet reported.
Many Bay Area students wanted a complete end to ICE’s campaign, and nothing less. As a speaker read the names of several people killed by ICE since Trump took office a year ago, Emeline Gutierrez, 18, gazed out at the sea of people filling Oakland’s Fruitvale market.
Wearing a Mexico soccer jersey and holding a sign reading “Fight ignorance, not immigrants,” the UC Berkeley freshman suggested the rallies were merely a start to a broader movement.
“We are here to stay,” she said. “And you can’t silence us.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.