Slippery Rock University’s campus witnessed a walkout and strike to oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from coming to Slippery Rock’s campus, as well as to spread awareness on Jan. 30. Organized by the Equal Right Advocates (ERA) and led by Ariella Westreich, an SRU student, demonstrators marched around campus, going from the quad to Morrow Field House, and back.
“Up, up with liberation, down, down with deportation,” and “What do we want? ICE out now!” could be heard chanted around campus. Students also carried handmade signs depicting ice melting and other phrases.
Ryan Wajert, president of SRU College Progressives, commented on the societal issues around the country.
“We have seen what is happening in Minneapolis and nationwide. People are getting snatched off the streets and brutalized, kids taken in vans, sent to wherever…and we want to stand and march in solidarity with them,” Wajert said.
Angel, a 19-year old cybersecurity major, spoke on his personal reason for protesting and why these demonstrations matter to him.
“My entire mom’s side of the family are immigrants. My mother came here when she was twelve,” Angel said. “Everything going on with ICE, it feels like an assault on my family’s legacy, but also everything that is a principle about being American…if ICE went to New York right now, my grandma, a legal US citizen for 30 years, could get shot for existing. It really pisses me off, you know? I want to shout, get loud, get people to hear me.”
Caden Carlson, a secondary education major, came out to show support for their loved one’s home in Philadelphia.
“There’s a lot of different people [in Philadelphia] with different backgrounds, and I can’t have my friends and neighbors go missing,” Carlson said. “It’s unconstitutional the way our country is being run, and any chance I can, I want to use my voice.”
Carlson then went on to touch on the possibility of ICE in the Slippery Rock area and expressed relief for Josh Shapiro openly opposing ICE in Pennsylvania.
“I am absolutely thrilled over the fact that they are trying to protect our state and keep ICE where they belong,” Carlson said.
Several protesters expressed worry over the potential of ICE’s presence on campus, fearing losing their friends or general unrest. However, despite this and several rumors of ICE in Slippery Rock vicinity, President Karen Riley assures that ICE has not been to SRU.
ERA and Westreich have plans for other protests and movements in coming weeks.
ICE Around the Nation
SRU’s demonstration was part of a much larger “ICE Out Day” organized by grassroots advocacy organization 50501. Based in Minneapolis, thousands of businesses closed as people flooded the streets, while student organizations around the countries organized walkouts. 50501 organized this to spread awareness for the death of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, as well as others lost in ICE custody.
Pretti, a VA nurse, was killed on Jan. 26. Pretti was attempting to record federal agents in Minneapolis when the situation became violent. Pretti, who was legally carrying his concealed weapon, was shot several times.
ICE, as well as the Trump administration, claim that he posed a direct threat to deferral agents. This incident occurred only three weeks after the shooting of mother Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, while she was non-violently protesting ICE’s activities in her hometown.
Gloriann Sahay, a 50501 coordinator, provided The Guardian with an interview.
“We are responding to people’s outrage,” Sahay said to The Guardian. “This doesn’t feel like America.”
Outside of Minneapolis, demonstrations have occurred in Los Angeles, New York City, Portland and Chicago over the past weeks. Smaller cities and college campuses held their own protests and events, which now includes Slippery Rock.
