{"id":139136,"date":"2026-01-31T22:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139136\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:22:17","slug":"anti-ice-protest-in-central-orlando-draws-crowd-of-more-than-1000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139136\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-ICE protest in Central Orlando draws crowd of more than 1,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 1,000 people gathered in Orlando on Saturday afternoon to send a message to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement:<\/a> Get out of Central Florida.<\/p>\n

The protest started at noon on the southwest edge of Fashion Square Mall and quickly spread to all four corners at the intersection of East Colonial Drive and Herndon Avenue during the Ice Out of Orlando<\/a> protest. Protesters of all age groups and ethnicities chanted and waved signs while passing motorists honked at them.<\/p>\n

Corey Hill, one of the event\u2019s organizers with 50501 Orlando<\/a> (50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement), said afterward he was pleased with how smoothly things went.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty successful. I am not the best crowd estimator but we handed out 500 signs and there were more than that,\u201d Hill said. \u201cI would venture to guess somewhere in the close to 2,000 range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar protests took place around the nation in the wake of the turmoil in Minneapolis, where two protesters have been shot and killed by ICE officers.<\/p>\n

As the event got underway there were about a dozen Orlando Police Department vehicles in the mall parking lot behind the protest. Many of the officers got on bicycles while others were on foot. There didn\u2019t appear to be law enforcement officers from other agencies, local, state or federal.<\/p>\n

Hill said he wasn\u2019t aware of any incidents between protesters and police.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty frictionless all around\u201d and he said he saw few counter-protesters: \u201cThere was a guy standing in the parking lot for probably an hour glaring at us and a few people flipped us off.\u201d<\/p>\n

People waved an assortment of signs \u2014 some were elaborate while others were simply writing on paper plates or notebook paper. Walking along the route you could hear cowbells and tambourines among chants including \u201cNo justice, no peace,\u201d and \u201cNo hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice, a woman in her 70s, was there with her husband. She said they came out of concern for the direction of the nation.<\/p>\n

She said she worked in Washington, D.C., during the Watergate Hearings of 1973 while President Richard Nixon was in office, and ultimately resigned, and the political climate is very different now than it was then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate the hate, this is horrible,\u201d she said. \u201cWe used to be able to have political difference, policy differences and discussions about the direction we should take without demonizing the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two sisters, Caitlyn and Leah, both in their 40s, said this was their first protest ever. Both said they have immigrant friends and don\u2019t like that they are living in fear for themselves and their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re afraid, so I\u2019m here for them, because they deserve to be here as much as every other person,\u201d Caitlyn said.<\/p>\n

The sisters said they were pleased to see such a diverse group of people gathered for the same cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see people from all across the spectrum,\u201d Leah said. \u201cYoung, old, white, Black, brown, everybody is here because it\u2019s worth it for our friends and our neighbors to be here and be the voice for people who can\u2019t have their voice right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

One couple brought their son, 11, and daughter, 9, because they thought it was an important lesson for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know some people who have been detained illegally that are here with legal paperwork and are not violating any laws and they are in prison right now,\u201d the father said. \u201cWe just think that ICE has crossed the line and they need to follow the rules like everyone else does.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we think it\u2019s important for our kids to learn that when people cross those boundaries that they can stand up and use their voice to try to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 1,000 people gathered in Orlando on Saturday afternoon to send a message to U.S. Immigration and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[147,56311,7867,60613,11611,12097,139,141,140,8416],"class_list":["post-139136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-central-florida","tag-corey-hill","tag-east-colonial-drive","tag-fashion-square-mall","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-law-enforcement-officers","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-police-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}