‘Melt the ICE!’ ‘No one is illegal on stolen land!’ ‘ICE is better crushed!’ ‘ICE out of schools!’
Such words were plastered all over the signs and shouted in the streets by hundreds and hundreds of students based in the Seattle area as they demanded that ICE leave. Following the recent uproar of ICE officials forcibly removing, deporting, and even murdering unarmed citizens, high school students have decided that enough is enough.
Organizing a walkout yesterday, on Feb. 5, 2026, hundreds of students walked out of their scheduled classes and took to the streets in a protest that ICE leave Seattle for once and for all. As ICE continues its merciless search and mass deportation, many ICE officials have begun to intimidate students, especially students born to immigrant parents, from attending school in Seattle. Growing tired of such acts of intimidation, the students organized the walkout and the protest to show ICE and the government that they will not be intimidated by such acts.
High school senior at Lakeside Upper School, Amara Aalfs-Weinbaum had this to say when speaking to reporters during the walkout protest: “It’s the threat and the fear of intimidation while you’re trying to pursue your education, which to me, is really horrible. Using intimidation tactics and fear and literally abducting children and pulling them into cars on their way to school is a violation of our human rights. That’s something that everyone should be standing up for.”
To echo the same sentiment of Aalfs-Weinbaum, I must agree that this is an issue in which everyone should be involved. Many people fail to see the influence of ICE immigration on value since they do not believe the issue concerns them, but I am here to remedy this in my following statement: It does concern you.
ICE Immigration tries to justify its actions by saying that they are deporting people who are a threat to America. Yet, in the same breath, ICE Immigration murders unarmed citizens, assaults protestors, and detains even the smallest of children, some just five years old. Do any of the people whom I named pose a threat to America? No.
Finally, combating the influence of ICE, I applaud these students for their bravery in organizing this walkout in Seattle. And judging on how things are going, this protest will surely NOT be the last.
