Emporia State students ,as well as community members, gathered in front of Plumb Hall at noon on Saturday, Feb. 7 to protest against the presence of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement across the country.
The protest occurred as the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants through boots-on-the-ground ICE enforcement operations. Several U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE officers since the start of Trump’s second term and others have been shot and killed during enforcement operations, including Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
With signs in hand, protestors marched from Plumb Hall on ESU’s campus to the corner of 12th Avenue and Kellogg Circle. They positioned themselves on the east side of the intersection before taking up both the east and west sides to proceed down Commercial Street.
One protestor held a blue sign adorned with a sunflower graphic that read “Real Kansans. Real voters. Real fed up.” Another flashed a sign made out of cardboard with the words “justice for all” painted on next to a peace sign. Holding paper flush to a skateboard, one protester displayed “ICE BAD” in all capital letters.
Freshman elementary education unified major Kailey Donnell, who organized the protest, said nationwide strikes in protest of ICE enforcement inspired her to take action.
“I saw (the strikes), but I was like ‘I still think there needs to be more,’” said Donnell. “So I posted on my story, ‘I’m gonna walk out with a sign and I’m going to go protest,’ but then I stopped and thought ‘okay, I’m probably not the only one person to want to use their voice and to speak up and show their support for communities being affected by ICE.”
During the demonstration, the group protested outside the Lyon County Courthouse and Emporia City Hall before making their way back up to the east corner of 12th Avenue and Kellogg Circle, where they dispersed around 2 p.m. Participants engaged in a series of chants during the demonstration, including those saying “ICE out” and “No justice, no peace we want ice out of our streets,” and received honks of support from passing cars.
Donnell said she was “shocked” and “got a little emotional” at the sheer number of people who participated in the demonstration. For freshmen Kaylin Ulmer, Kelcy Welsh and Abigail Van Swearingen, the protests and show of support from community members give them “hope”.
“(The) variety of people that are showing up to this, even the people that are honking at us, like we’ve been talking about ‘oh, I thought that car was about to flip us off,’ but that’s like us profiling the people in the car and … looking at them and being like ‘well they would not be on our side,’ but it’s beautiful to see the kind of people (honking and participating),” said Ulmer.
Van Swearingen added to Ulmer’s sentiments.
“(Seeing) as many people that we wouldn’t expect to be on our side actually being on our side, and like seeing the amount of, just the amount of people just kind of gives us a bit more hope that things might be able to change soon,” she said.
Senior Isaiah Oliver, president of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and director of community engagement for Black Student Union and Men of Excellence, also attended the demonstrations. He said his presence at the protest was to represent his organizations in the efforts and advocate.
“I really try to be the biggest advocate for my people as I can be, and that’s not even just for my people but for everybody,” said Oliver.
“So whenever I see that there’s something going wrong in the world, then I want to try to be a solution, or at least help the problem not make it worse, because I’m a big believer that if you sit to the side and you don’t do anything about it, then you’re just as guilty or just as wrong as everybody else and the people who are doing it.”
