FORT GREENE AND BARCLAYS CENTER — ABOUT 500 BROOKLYN TECH STUDENTS, YELLING “MELT THE ICE!” walked out on classes Friday to protest the violent actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, reports news website Hellgate. The walkout was part of a “national shutdown,” set for Jan. 30-31, with the slogan: “No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE,” according to The Guardian. The activists demand that ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents be permanently expelled from U.S. cities and towns in the wake of the high-profile killings of U.S. citizens and the detention of 5-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota, who was released this weekend.

 Ninth graders at the ethnically-diverse Brooklyn Technical High School organized this local Jan. 30 walkout in the frigid weather that seemed to underscore their message. Students in other grades also participated, marching to Barclays Center, within walking distance from Brooklyn Tech. They also rallied near the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument in Fort Greene Park, holding signs they made with slogans like “Melt the ICE!” and “ICE is Trump’s gestapo.”

Faculty members also did a walkout in early December to support the immigrant student body, according to the campus newspaper.

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