{"id":157499,"date":"2026-01-31T02:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157499\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T02:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:57:09","slug":"sacramento-students-lead-anti-ice-walkouts-downtown-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157499\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento students lead anti-ICE walkouts, downtown protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abridged version:<\/p>\n

Students from at least 10 Sacramento-area schools helped lead a citywide walkout Friday, which fed into demonstrations at the state Capitol and John Moss Federal Building.<\/p>\n

The protests came in response to President Donald Trump\u2019s escalating immigration enforcement and recent killings by federal officers in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The crowds at the state Capitol reached a peak of more than 1,000 people Friday around noon, before carrying over to the John Moss building. Beyond the student-led demonstrations, some local businesses halted operations and community members gathered at Cesar Chavez Park as part of a general strike occurring throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of students from Sacramento-area schools left their campuses Friday morning and headed downtown for organized protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Parents, educators and other adults joined the teenagers\u2019 demonstration, which spilled across the lawn and front steps of the state Capitol before proceeding to the John Moss Federal Building. Elected officials dotted the crowd, too.<\/p>\n

Protests have propagated in Sacramento, a sanctuary city<\/a>, in response to immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two people. Students in California\u2019s capital city said they were out Friday in their own display of opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of kids that are coming,\u201d said Zion Thomasson, a junior at C.K. McClatchy High School. \u201cI think it\u2019ll show that we\u2019re actually fed up with ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crowd\"A crowd of McClatchy High School students walk out of school to protest ICE at the state Capitol on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Martin Christian)<\/p>\n

\u2018Frantic\u2019 organization process<\/p>\n

As second period wound down Friday morning, student organizers at McClatchy began assembling at the school\u2019s entrance. The teens in blue safety vests carried stacks of signs and miniature bullhorns.<\/p>\n

Planning for the protest began about a week prior, said McClatchy junior Louis Russell. The \u201cfrantic\u201d process brought together student leaders from at least 10 area schools.<\/p>\n

While waiting for the rest of their classmates, a gaggle of children from nearby California Middle School marched by, en route to the state Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see what students can do when they have the voice and \u2026 when they care,\u201d said fellow junior Michael Heffron.<\/p>\n

The group departed Land Park for the California Capitol around 10:45 a.m.<\/p>\n

\t\tSign Up for the Morning Newsletter<\/p>\n

The Abridged morning newsletter lands in your inbox every weekday morning with the latest news from the Sacramento region.<\/p>\n

\"Crowd\"McClatchy High School students wait for a light rail train on their way to protest ICE at the state Capitol on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Martin Christian)<\/p>\n

\"Crowd\"C.K. McClatchy High School students exit light rail on their way to an ICE protest at the state Capitol on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Martin Christian)<\/p>\n

Crowds amass at the Capitol, John Moss building<\/p>\n

After arriving downtown via light rail, the students from McClatchy joined a sea of teenagers \u2014 sporting backpacks and hoisting colorful signs \u2014 in front of the state Capitol building.<\/p>\n

Volunteers from NorCal Resist and\u00a050501 Movement<\/a>\u00a0Sacramento were there to greet protesters and hand out whistles. (Some students blew the whistles immediately, to which volunteers pleaded with them to only do if they see ICE. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to scare our neighbors,\u201d volunteers said.)<\/p>\n

About 40 officers from California Highway Patrol, some on horses, monitored the scene, as the crowd swelled to about 1,000 demonstrators by noon.<\/p>\n

Students spoke to the crowds through microphones and megaphones. \u201cWe need to stay inspired and stay active long after this,\u201d one speaker said. Another spoke about the United States being the land of opportunity.<\/p>\n

Portions of the crowd peeled off to march to the John Moss Federal Building, which houses the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and has been a fixture in anti-ICE protests in Downtown Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\"Officers\"CHP patrolled the state Capitol during a student ICE protest on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Martin Christian)<\/p>\n

\"\"Students march to the John Moss Federal Building. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n

School leaders showed support<\/p>\n

School board members were among the elected officials in the crowd Friday.<\/p>\n

Sacramento City Unified Trustees Chinua Rhodes, Jasjit Singh, April Ybarra and Michael Benjamin commended student organizers while at the state Capitol. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur students are out here, and as board members,\u201d Singh said, \u201cwe\u2019re really proud of them exercising their constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

District leaders did not officially endorse the protests or have any hand in planning, according to a message from Sacramento City Unified Board President Tara Jeane Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSacramento City Unified is responsible for the safety of all students on our school campuses,\u201d Jeane wrote. \u201cWe know our staff will be monitoring what they can as students leave campus, but they do not have the capacity to supervise the planned activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Students walk to the John Moss Federal Building. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n

Other demonstrations during the day<\/p>\n

At least 20 Sacramento-area businesses were closed Friday as part of a general strike occurring throughout the country. Shops like Frenzy Coffee and Wild Sisters Book Co. announced on social media that they would be shut down for the day.<\/p>\n

Others, such as Casa Flores Cafe and Offbeat Coffee, were open but donated some or all proceeds from Friday sales to anti-ICE groups.<\/p>\n

As crowds at the student-led action thinned, a contingent of the protestors left the state Capitol and made their way to Cesar Chavez Plaza. There, a more multigenerational crowd was gathering.<\/p>\n

To the constant chorus of honking cars, a crowd of a few hundred watched speakers and chanted things like \u201cI believe that we will win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denis Akbari, Martin Christian and Benjy Egel contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: Students from at least 10 Sacramento-area schools helped lead a citywide walkout Friday, which fed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5592,121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-157499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-feature","9":"tag-sacramento","10":"tag-sacramento-headlines","11":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157499","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=157499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}