Around 200 students gathered at the UT Tower to march to the ‘ICE Out’ rally at the Texas Capitol, joining thousands across the country protesting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota and the killings of two U.S. citizens at the hands of ICE on Friday. At the Capitol, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Austin police detained two demonstrators.
The Tower protest was held by the Students for a Democratic Society at UT, where they then walked about a mile to meet a larger protest held by The Party for Socialism and Liberation. The party hosted ICE out rallies across the nation as a part of a National Day of Action. The party encouraged “no work, no school, no shopping,” asking people not to invest in the economy. Last week, Alex Pretti, an American citizen, was shot in an altercation with ICE in Minnesota, sparking national outrage and prompting the strike, according to an Instagram post by The Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Zoë Thorn, a sophomore English and radio-television-film student, said she was inspired to join the protest after seeing posts on social media about detainments and the killing of Renee Good by ICE agents, about two weeks before the Pretti shooting. She said like-minded college students have a special role in protesting by being able to create multiple social movements across the country at the same time.
“Something needs to change, and the way that change is going to happen is if we continue to put our voices out there, and this is the way to do it,” she said.
Thorn said she fears the potential ICE presence in Austin and how easily they can detain people, including at UT. In January 2025, the Trump administration repealed a directive that protected schools, universities and places of worship from ICE enforcement.
“UT has such a large Hispanic population, (and) has such a large immigrant population, that it’s worrying for me that there are people that I know who could get hurt, and I don’t want that to happen,” Thorne said.
Some students who had a personal connection to the demonstration said they marched in honor of their family members, who could not speak out for themselves. Jazmin Bocanegra, a first-year kinesiology and health education student, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She said she is disappointed in how the Trump administration has handled ICE raids, calling them “inhumane.”
“I came (to UT) as a first-generation student,” Bocanegra said. “My dad is a hard worker, a taxpayer … He is self-employed, (and) he’s been able to get his career ahead by himself with no help. And I’m just here to prove that it wasn’t all for nothing.”
Government freshman Citlaly Perez was born into an immigrant family and said she believes the current administration is filled with violence when the people deserve peaceful enforcement.
“I hope that with this national protest, the President and the government can see that people truly do care, and we’re not going to stand with being overridden by the government,” Perez said.
