Hundreds of people met at Teralta Park in City Heights for a rally Friday afternoon, chanting and holding signs saying “Stop ICE Terrorism,” “Justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti” and “Defund Trump.”
The demonstration was part of a nationwide series of strikes that saw people stay home from work and school and avoid shopping Friday in protest of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, and in particular the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
In San Diego, protest attendees said that they were angry, but that joining together gave them hope.
The group — about 400 strong — marched through the neighborhood, down Orange and Fairmount avenues before circling back along University Avenue. Residents cheered the marchers on from the windows of their homes.
Clairemont residents Matt and Erin Levy pulled their son out of school to join the rally. “We don’t want to have to teach him these things,” Erin said as the family walked down Fairmount Avenue, but said she wants him to be able to learn from them and ask questions.
Matt works for the Pentagon and said it’s a challenge to work for a government he feels at odds with, calling the immigration arrests and enforcement “state terror.”
“If people like me leave there and don’t work there, then it’s just gonna get worse,” he said. “Otherwise it’s left in the hands of people who play with big guns like toys.”
Demonstrators protest ICE on an overpass above the I-15 during a rally across from Teralta Park in City Heights on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Students from UC San Diego and San Diego State University said they skipped class for the national shutdown, and some professors canceled class. One woman traveled from Murrieta, in Riverside County, to join her family for the rally.
“It’s important for us to be out here and speak for our community, especially for those that don’t have a voice right now,” said SDSU student Isabel Caballero. “This is a very serious thing for us.”
Ariana Torres, a South Park resident, said rallies like these give people a way to take control of the narrative. But she points to other ways that people can get involved, too, such as by volunteering or through mutual aid.
Speakers at the rally encouraged the crowd to keep fighting. Brisa Johnson, executive director of the San Diego Black Worker Center, urged them to keep mobilizing in their communities.
“I’ve come out to rallies; I’ve come out to protest. And it was a beautiful crowd, and it was a beautiful moment. And the week later, I didn’t see them again,” Johnson said. “This is your moment of ignition.”
aDemonstrators protest ICE during a rally at Teralta Park in City Heights on Friday. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)