Calling all high school and college students: Walk out and turn up the heat on ICE. No business as usual until all immigrants who have been kidnapped are free!
Friday, February 13th, 2PM Local Time
Police and politicians are protecting ICE. Thousands of people have been kidnapped and are suffering in detention centers across the country, long before this renewed cycle of media attention. We need to put an end to this Nightmare.
That means disrupting business as usual. We need to get organized and go on the offensive for our neighbors, for the separated families, and the thousands of people packed into the detention centers. This isn’t about democrats or republicans; it’s about smashing the deportation machine that has existed under both parties. Students have a long history of being on the cutting edge of movements fighting for real change, not weak concessions and reforms.
If you have seen walkouts on the news or online, and feel the irresistible urge to join one, but no one is planning it near you, be the one who starts it.
If you have done this with your friends before, do it again, and do it bigger and better.
And don’t let this be a one-time thing — join the Spring Surge to Melt ICE and start planning events where you live. Take history into your own hands and build a movement that can crush ICE.
GET A CREW, MAKE A PLAN
Starting now, if you’re down to take up this call, you can start by telling your friends. If they’re down, get together to make plans. Make the walkouts your own and something that resonates with your area. Come up with demands, chants (you can use the one’s we came up with if needed like ¡Libertad para los secuestrados!) and poster ideas. Be creative!
From there, spread the word online and in person. Let people know who are outside your social circle, find people at other schools who are down to stage a walkout too. Find someone to get pictures and videos and call news tiplines to tell them about your plans and why you are doing it. The more coverage your walkout gets the better.
On the day of the walkout, let people know why you’re walking out and what you’re demanding. Be loud, defiant, and speak from the heart. If administration catches wind and pushes back, let them know that you are on the right side of history and they should join you, then do it anyway.
We suggest reviewing “Take the Streets or Stay on the Sidewalk: Lessons from Anti-Ice Protests in Orange County.“ for practical guidance and “ICE executing Renee Good kicked off militant protests around the country. Where do we take it from here?” for political context before the walkout. If you need any help, hit us up on insta. We want to support your effort and boost it!
AFTER THE WALK OUT
Tell us how it went! If you face repercussions during the walkout, let us know, we will fight back with you.
Post videos and pictures of the walkout, people need to see what you’re capable of and what you stand for. Your bravery will be a model for bigger, bolder, collective action!
Join the nationwide Spring Surge to melt ICE and start planning the next action.
SOME HISTORY OF SCHOOL WALKOUTS
In December 2005, the US House of Representatives passed the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, HR 4437. The Act would have made being undocumented in the US a felony. Helping an undocumented person stay in the country would also result in a felony charge.
On March 27, 2006, upwards of 40,000 students defied campus lockdowns, opposition from teachers, principals, and school police, to walk out in protest of HR 4437. Students in Orange County blocked the Riverside freeway and the Santa Ana freeway, waving Mexican flags and tossing a rock that smashed the window of a CHP cruiser.
Thousands of youth gathered at LA City Hall for a rally, chanting “Latinos Stand Up!” and “Viva Mexico!”, refusing to go home when then-LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told students he opposed HR 4437 to diffuse the energy and make the students leave. They responded, “Hell no, we won’t go!” choosing to stay in the streets.
In Riverside and Santa Ana, seven students and one adult were arrested after scuffles with riot police. Police used nightsticks, pepper spray and barricades to disrupt student protests and get them to disperse, but students held firm in their defiance, hurling rocks and bottles at police.
For 17-year-old Jasmine Chavez, a student protester who attended Montabello High School, walking out was a way to honor her mother:
“Me, personally, I did it to represent my mom, because she has tried — attempted to come to the United States from El Salvador three times as a nine-year-old. She was actually in jail, in prison, with real criminals and prostitutes and all that. All that trouble she went through as a nine-year-old to come to the United States for a better education for me, for a better life, for that to be taken away from her. And my father.”
Other students cited the high percentage of undocumented students at their schools. They expressed frustration and anger that their loved ones were being criminalized for coming to the US for a better life. They were also afraid they would be left alone and have to fend for themselves if their parents were deported.
In the end, HR 4437 failed to pass in the Senate and the bill was killed, a victory giving us a taste of our potential collective power. But the ruling class responded to mass protests with an uptick in deportations under the Bush and Obama administrations that instilled fear and deflated the movement for immigrant rights.
Today, the US federal government is trying to impose the same terror: ICE is murdering anyone who dare stand against them, continuing to kidnap and hold thousands of immigrants in inhumane conditions, brutalizing them, killing them. Fuck the feds. ¡No tenemos miedo!
In 2006, students showed what it would take to throw sand in the gears of the deportation machine. They walked out to fight for their loved ones and immigrant neighbors, showing defiance in the face of beatings and arrests. They refused to sit back as the government threatened their families and neighborhoods. On February 13th, we’re calling on this generation of students to reignite the fight against the deportation machine and to not stop until it is fully smashed!
¡No tenemos miedo!
¡Libertad para los secuestrados!
¡Alto con las deportaciónes!
Sources
Dare to Struggle Article (2025). “Take the Streets or Stay on the Sidewalk: Lessons from Anti-Ice Protests in Orange County.” DTS SoCal.
Dare to Struggle Article (2026). “ICE executing Renee Good kicked off militant protests around the country. Where do we take it from here?” DTS National.
Dare to Struggle Article (2025). “Why Students MUST Fight Back.” DTS Austin.
ACLU Memo to Interested Persons Regarding Concerns in H.R. 4437, the “Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.” ACLU.
Democracy Now (2006). Thousands of Students Defy School Lockdowns and Continue Walkouts to Protest Anti-Immigrant Bill. Democracy Now.
Cho, Cynthia and Anna Gorman (2006). Massive Student Walkout Spreads Across Southland. Los Angeles Times.
Dare to Struggle 