{"id":157325,"date":"2026-01-31T00:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157325\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:56:09","slug":"walkouts-closures-across-bay-area-in-protest-against-ice-crackdown-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157325\/","title":{"rendered":"Walkouts, closures across Bay Area in protest against ICE crackdown \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanting \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d and \u201cS\u00ed se puede,\u201d thousands of students across the Bay Area walked out of their classes Friday and rallied in opposition to the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown,<\/a>\u00a0following the deaths of two people this month<\/a> at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cnational shutdown\u201d to end ICE funding and a stop to the agency\u2019s \u201cterror\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

Holding a sign proclaiming \u201cSkipping our lesson to teach you one,\u201d 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\u2019s Fruitvale Public Market, where a parade of high school and college students stepped, one by one, to a microphone to decry the federal crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to fight for our American Dream, and build a better future,\u201d said Pablo Mendoza, 18, a student at Alternatives in Action High School in Oakland. \u201cMy parents fought hard to come here and give me an education. We\u2019re human as well \u2014 we\u2019re all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the bay in South San Francisco, El Camino High School senior Alejandra Argueta stressed that staying silent is no longer an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because it\u2019s not happening to you doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re supposed to sit back and watch everything unfold,\u201d said Argueta, 17, while suggesting \u201cit\u2019s only a matter of time until things get worse\u201d in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Already this week, hundreds of students walked out of classes in the East Bay and the South Bay<\/a> in protest of ICE\u2019s 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 \u201cNo ICE! No wall! Free the families, free them all!\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On Friday, at least 400 students and community members gathered at Santa Clara University\u2019s Bronco Statue, shouting \u201cLet\u2019s be clear, immigrants are welcome here.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refuse to inherit a world in which these injustices exist,\u201d said Gavin Brunsman, a religious studies senior at the South Bay university. \u201cGen Z, we are growing up, we are entering the \u2018real world,\u2019 and we have the power to create a world that reciprocates, that creates equal opportunity, that provides justice to each and every community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the East Bay, hundreds of students marched through the streets of Castro Valley, eliciting honks from passing motorists and holding signs proclaiming \u201cJesus said: Love thy neighbor\u201d and \u201cBeat fascism,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ceveryone is implicated and everyone is affected, whether we like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, this isn\u2019t a single tragedy \u2014 it\u2019s one of many,\u201d said Denney, an international relations major. \u201cThere are so many people who haven\u2019t had strikes called in their name or people walk out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the east in Danville, at least two dozen students from The Athenian School\u00a0marched 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud they\u2019re doing something to be heard and to let people know where they stand,\u201d McGraw said. \u201cThey\u2019re standing up for their voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the students took the the street, many business owners acknowledged the day\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The Moment Japantown store in San Jose shut its doors for the day, saying in a social media post that \u201cwe refuse to operate \u2018business as usual.’\u201d The same went for the owners of Edo\u2019s Salon on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels impossible to conduct business as usual while members of our community are being denied basic human dignity,\u201d the salon\u2019s owners wrote in a social media post. \u201cFor us, there is no true beauty without humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cto provide our community a space for reflection, healing and connection\u201d and the Japanese American Museum in San Jose also opened its doors, saying that \u201cWe welcome anyone seeking to learn from the past\u2014 from our past\u2014 in hopes that our stories and experiences shed light on what can happen when no one speaks up and no one resists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discord came as Trump\u2019s administration appeared to somewhat shift its tone and strategy, amid growing furor over the rounding up of migrants in Minneapolis and beyond.<\/p>\n

For the first time Friday, the Department of Justice said it would initiate a civil rights investigation<\/a> 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 \u2014 who was initially labeled a \u201cwould-be assassin\u201d by the Trump administration \u2014 and the fatal shooting of Good, who also was called a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d by members of Trump\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n

Also, Trump\u2019s 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 \u201cnot at all\u201d pulling back its campaign in Minneapolis, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n

Many Bay Area students wanted a complete end to ICE\u2019s 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\u2019s Fruitvale market.<\/p>\n

Wearing a Mexico soccer jersey and holding a sign reading \u201cFight ignorance, not immigrants,\u201d the UC Berkeley freshman suggested the rallies were merely a start to a broader movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to stay,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t silence us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chanting \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d and \u201cS\u00ed se puede,\u201d thousands of students across the Bay Area walked out of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[389,184,764,7,8,400,390,409,391,392,332,393,2333,15,2306,2871,14,4730,1533,181,23,205,992,2582,100,993,143,395,182,408,72940,13,7361,385,101,396,88,90,89,397,198,200,398,1695,399],"class_list":["post-157325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-central-contra-costa","tag-city-politics","tag-concord","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-east-bay","tag-east-contra-costa","tag-editors-picks","tag-education","tag-higher-education","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-k-12-education","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-marin-county","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-north-bay","tag-oakland","tag-peninsula","tag-pm-report","tag-police-accountability","tag-police-killing","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-regional","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-tri-valley","tag-trump-administration","tag-west-contra-costa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}