Chicago students protest attacks on immigrants: “¡Trump escucha, estamos en la lucha!”

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, February 11, over 70 students rallied and marched at the University of Illinois at Chicago to defend immigrant rights after a rise in ICE raids.

The protest was called by New Students for a Democratic Society at UIC (New SDS at UIC) in coordination with the emergency national week of action called by National New SDS. Some of the endorsing campus organizations included Anakbayan, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA), Jewish Student Collective (JSC), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), and Radical Public Health (RPH).

John Emiliano of Anakbayan at UIC spoke of how the ICE raids have been impacting the Filipino community, stating, “Our own Chicago Consulate of the Philippines have reported that ‘no Filipinos have been affected by the ICE deportations in Illinois’. But we know as people on the ground, having to see and live these conditions every day, what the truth is. We’ve heard many cases across the country and locally of the cruelties of detentions and deportations.”

Emiliano continued on how Filipino groups and communities have been fighting back, “Tanggol Migrante Chicago has been stepping up its know-your-rights information campaign and has been dropping off the KYR cards in Filipino stores and restaurants around the city. We have created mutual help clusters, support groups, and rapid response teams so we can follow up to protect and prepare our people.”

A member of SJP at UIC spoke out about the fear following the attacks by the Trump administration, stating, “These actions have affected major communities near us, in many places where people who are trying to just get by with whatever money they make that day. They struck fear into many business owners in places like Pilsen, Little Village, and countless other neighborhoods where Black and brown people are fighting to build a better world.”

Speaking on behalf of the FRSO, Giotl Araujo stated, “U.S. monopoly-capitalism has treated places in the global south, like Latin America, where it can exploit the locals, loot the resources, and destroy their political life, like its backyard. U.S. imperialists have destroyed the livelihoods of various peoples of Latin America, at the expense of fattening their pockets.”

After the program, despite the freezing cold, students marched around campus, and past the University Hall, making their chants loud and clear. “¿Que queremos? ¡Legalización!” (What do we want? Legalization!) and “¡Trump, escucha, estamos en la lucha!” (Trump, listen, we are in the fight back!) echoed throughout campus.

Threats of the reactionary Trump agenda are seeping their way into even the most self-described “progressive” universities, like UIC, which have already shown itself in the first three weeks of Trump’s administration. Earlier this month, word had spread around UI-Health, quietly enforcing Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care for youth and students under age 19. This was then backtracked after students and youth protested this outrageous decision.

While the university has stated that it will not work with ICE to deport immigrant students, UIC police have been used as the buffer to deal with any attempts ICE makes at deportations. Students have made it clear they want a sanctuary campus with no ICE agent stepping foot on campus. New SDS at UIC and progressive students will mobilize to pressure the University of Illinois Chicago to not comply with the Trump agenda!

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #SDS #SJP #MeSA #JSC #FRSO #Featured