Across Chicago and its suburbs, high school students have been organizing walkouts in protest of ICE. These protests follow many unnecessary deaths, cases of extreme brutality and abuse, and unjust deportations across the country under the Trump Administration.
Last Friday, February 13th, an anonymous student led a walkout at our very own Cary-Grove High School. I was there. Here’s what you need to know.
For context, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE for short, is a government organization that aims to “protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety,” as stated by ICE’s official website.
Though this country’s immigration system has always been flawed, to say that Trump’s ICE is flawed is an understatement. It is broken. It is dehumanizing. It is unjust, and unconstitutional.
There have been records of over 170 deportations of legal citizens, both immigrants and natural-born, according to ProPublica in October of last year. Additionally, Reuters found that at least 4,421 cases filed by detainees have been cases of illegal detainment, as agreed upon by federal judges.
A great number of these cases involve a rule that states that immigrants living in the U.S., with no criminal record, can be released on bond. But ICE and Trump ignore this.
Not only this, but other U.S. judges, including Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, have confirmed that ICE has violated multiple laws such as the Immigration Act of 1990. ICE has done this by profiling, interrogating, and detaining minorities with no knowledge of their citizenship statuses and without warrants. Side note: it seems hypocritical that an emphasis is being put on legal immigration by the same people who are unable to solve America’s immigration “crisis” legally.
I recommend that ICE review the Fourth Amendment, then take a step back and look at the atrocities they are committing. Their actions are the definition of unconstitutional.
To the ICE and Trump supporters who claim to be patriots, who swear by the Constitution but cannot see the truth: Open your eyes. It is okay to admit you are wrong, and I am sorry that people have made you feel that that is not okay. But I promise you, it is better to be wrong and change than to be wrong and stubborn. There is far more to be said about ICE, their actions, and their victims, so please, research what is happening in your own country.
We need to get more civically engaged because the more I have looked into people’s varying perspectives on political situations such as this, the more I see how challenging it can be to navigate them.
For instance, on the day of the walkout, the school staff was taking protest posters from students in the front office as they walked into school. I think the administration has a legitimate concern about the distracting nature of political posters in school.
Yet, this doesn’t feel consistent with the school’s policies around politics when clothing featuring Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan is allowed.
Political clothing is not strictly prohibited in our school’s student handbook, however, which raises the question, “Where, exactly, is the line drawn?”
Similarly, we’ve recently seen the addition of a new club at CG called Club America. The introduction of Club America has brought up many questions of neutrality within Cary-Grove, and I understand why.
For those unaware, the club is powered by Turning Point U.S.A., an organization known for its conservative, Republican values. Theoretically, posters for the club could be equally as political as the posters that were taken from students the day of the walkout.
While some people will immediately call this hypocrisy or a double-standard, this is exactly the type of situation that requires us to step back and to listen and learn from each other so we can move forward productively.
While the club doesn’t sound neutral because of its parent organization, the high school version aims to discuss topics such as civics, economics, public service, and general government policies, all with the intent to foster productive conversation.
This club is required to be open to all, regardless of political affiliation. To those concerned by it, I remind you that we must be open to others’ perspectives. If we reject others’ values with pessimism and low expectations, that’s all we’ll be left with: negativity.
Rather than working against each other, we can hold this club to its values and integrate that meaningful dialogue its members are hoping for.
Similarly, following last Friday’s events, I implore my fellow students who were part of the walkout to not violate the peace of peaceful protests. This only fuels hatred on both sides, undermining the mission of those with valid points to argue.
When we focus on understanding rather than attacking, we give others a safe space to have open discussions rather than feel defensive. If anyone wishes to see the change they want to see, they cannot lead with hatred.
Shifting towards the protest itself, the procession began at nine in the morning and did not conclude until over four hours later. It began at the school, moving down Three Oaks Road and leading to the Cary Square. Around noon, the group traveled down Route 14 to the Cary train station, through the Downtown area, and back to the Square.
On a personal note, I had never felt more united with the student body than I did that day. It didn’t matter if I had seen one familiar face or twenty, what mattered was the movement. The message. The reason we had all gathered in front of the school: Immigrant lives matter.
That day, after being called a loser by a grown man in a Starbucks line, after being told to “go back to school,” and after being flipped off by a mother and her child, I learned that love is more common that hate, because for each middle finger we received, we earned tenfold the amount of thumbs ups from the elderly and supportive honks from truck drivers.
Students bought water bottles, snacks, held their countries’ flags up high with pride and danced with spirit. Our walkout may have been born out of anger with Trump’s ICE, but it was executed with hope. Hope for reform and for justice.
Our walkout was built by a community that found each other through one common goal: to show immigrants that they are welcome, and show ICE that they are not.
If I learned anything else from the walkout, it is that hate is a loud, firey, ugly dragon, but love is a knight, in wonderful shining armor.
Many of the people that can afford to be hateful are the ones that have never known oppression, that lack the empathy to see beyond their privilege. If you don’t see the problem with ICE today, check your privilege.
It was an honor to be part of a movement bigger than myself, to speak for those who have had their voices silenced. My fellow students, we must be twice as loud for the people who cannot speak.
I will repeat what I’ve been repeating: I am privileged to only worry that a two-hour detention will come of this.
Others are sitting in detention centers, with no family, with no medication, with no humanity, with no hope that they will eventually leave.
Others are sitting at home, wondering when home will feel safe again.
Others are praying for the loved ones they haven’t heard from in months.
To those asking why we protest, it is for them. It is to show the world that the knights can be just as loud as dragons, if not louder. Trump’s ICE is not welcome here, and it never will be. We will not give up. I believe in this movement, because to love is to resist hate, and we will never stop resisting.
Long live love.