USF students and locals gathered outside the Tampa City Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 20, for an anti-Trump protest. ORACLE PHOTO/THOMAS MARRS

Nearly 150 Tampa residents, including USF students, gathered outside Tampa City Hall on Tuesday to protest the Donald Trump presidential administration.

Protests against the Trump administration erupted across the U.S. on Jan. 20 — the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration — as part of the Free America walkouts, a series of events hosted by the Women’s March.

Women’s March is a feminist social justice group that aims to fight for the power of the people and democracy according to their website.

The Tampa protest was held from 5 to 7 p.m. outside the Tampa City Hall, which is about a 20-minute drive from the USF Tampa campus.

USF students and Tampa locals stood outside the building with signs to showcase their dissatisfaction with federal policies in the U.S.

Some USF students said they attended the event in the hopes that attendance numbers would pressure the administration to change. 

Related: USF students protest university ties to immigration enforcement 

Tess Miller, a senior English major who attended the event, said people showed up to support their causes and exercise their right to protest freely. 

“There’s not a lot that students feel like they can do, but I think going to protests, attending rallies, making your voice heard is super important and does a lot more than you think,” Miller said.

Miller said this was her first time at a protest, but said she believes “everyone” should condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Renee Good’s death earlier this month. 

A federal immigration officer shot and killed Good, 37, on Jan. 7 while she was driving her car in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after she and her wife stopped to support her neighbors, according to the Associated Press.

Some protestors held signs that read, “Stop ICE” and “The Trump Administration is toxic to the world.”

Miller said enforcement agencies and police are using their power in “super abusive” ways — showing a shift in how they approach and handle situations since Trump’s inauguration.

Miller, like others at the protest, said recent actions from ICE — including Good’s death — are brutal examples of this abuse.

“Deportation isn’t something completely alien to our beliefs and our thoughts and what the government has been doing in the past,” Miller said. 

While Miller focused on protesting ICE, other demonstrators focused their attention on Trump — saying he is using his leadership power to benefit his own political interests. 

Related: USF Faculty Senate opposes UP, ICE partnership 

Mackenzie Queen, a junior digital communications and multimedia journalism major, said she believes representing a cause is an important part of protecting personal rights.

“It’s part of your civil duty,” Queen said. “Most of what a person can do is vote and then come out and use their voice.”

Queen said she was satisfied with the turnout for the event and hopes it will have an impact on the broader Tampa community and the country. 

“There’s somewhat of an idea that people with hope or people with goals are in the minority, but when people come out like this, it shows that their strength with numbers that we’re not alone,” Queen said.

Allie Enriquez, a senior psychology major, said she has seen “a lot of fear” about ICE involvement on campus.

“What USF could do is make our campus a sanctuary campus, especially when we have so many international students, especially graduate assistants,” Enriquez said.

A sanctuary school is an educational institution that lacks the legal authority or resources to engage in federal immigration enforcement and therefore limits its cooperation with such agencies, according to Immigrants Rising.

Still, Enriquez said she was “really happy” to see such a large turnout for the event. 

“I know that a lot of people have been viewing this lately as like very bleak, but I think there is hope for this country and for goodness to prevail,” Enriquez said.