About 300 UC Berkeley students and community members rallied yesterday against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on the steps of Sproul Hall.
The rally was organized by the campus chapters of Students for Socialism, or SFS; Students for Justice in Palestine; Students Organizing for Liberation; and Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Students began gathering around 2 p.m., and the event lasted about an hour and a half.
Speakers encouraged the crowd to join a “National Shutdown” on Friday, in which people skip work or school, as well as refrain from making purchases.Activists hope that a large turnout will demonstrate to the federal government that everyday people have power over the national economy, which they can leverage in the face of increased ICE violence.
Wednesday’s rally was spurred by this month’s ICE operations in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump has deployed 2,000 federal agents to the city since the beginning of January — the largest immigration operation in U.S. history. ICE officers have since killed two residents: Renée Good and Alex Pretti.
At least six immigrants have died in ICE custody since the beginning of this year. In addition, an off-duty ICE officer murdered Los Angeles resident Keith Porter on Dec. 31.
Attendees chanted “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and “money for jobs and education, not for war and deportation.” They also held signs that read “F— ICE” and “ICE kills with impunity.”
Speakers said they were answering a call to action for solidarity from the Somali Student Association at the University of Minnesota, who organized a general strike last Friday in Minneapolis with thousands of attendees.
Sebastián Puerta, an economics Ph.D. student and head steward for United Auto Workers Local 4811, cited the protest as an example of the working people’s power to stand up in the face of state brutality.
“What Minnesota proved last week (is) that virtue is common, that courage is not rare,” Puerta said. “We, not masked ICE agents, are the brave and the many, and it is they that are the weak and the few.”
SFS organizer Jordan Perry, a UC Berkeley School of Law student, said she has seen more turnout to meetings, actions and events from the Berkeley community following the ICE escalation in Minneapolis this month.
Campus juniors Citlaly Espino and Mia Vidal said they missed meetings and class to be at the rally. Espino plans to attend the national shutdown.
“I see my people here and that makes me so happy,” Espino said. “It’s very rare, the occasions that I get to see my Hispanic community show up and to know that we’re here at Berkeley.”
Campus freshman Lexi Limon’s family background motivated her to attend the rally.
Limon, who is Native American and Mexican, emphasized the irony of deporting people on land that had been taken from Indigenous people.
“Not only are we fighting for everyone in America, but we’re fighting for our families,” Limon said. “It’s just so hurtful to see that these people, these grandparents, these children, are being treated like nothing on stolen land. No one’s illegal on stolen land.”
Speakers encouraged attendees to join them on Crescent Lawn at noon for Friday’s national shutdown.
The group will then march to the Downtown Berkeley BART Station and head to Dolores Park in San Francisco.
“People everywhere are feeling really energized. I definitely see that in the crowd,” Perry said. “One of the things we really tried to do today was be like: You are an organizer, your job is to bring that energy and to help other people harness that energy also.”