How 17-year-olds are organizing walkouts against ICE

This article How 17-year-olds are organizing walkouts against ICE was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

On Jan. 28, Jalysa, a 17-year-old student at William C. Overfelt High School in East San Jose, California, led a walkout during sixth period. More than half of the students in her school left class and walked 20 minutes to a local Target where people had been targeted by ICE. 

The students chanted “Si, se puede,” “La raza si, la migra no” and “Hey hey, ho ho, ICE has got to go” while waving Mexican flags. They were escorted by grassroots community groups Jalysa had reached out to, who came to show support and act as security. The walkout turned into a protest that included speeches and performances from the school’s mariachi and folklorico teams, as well Aztec dancers.

“A lot of people, especially adults and Trump supporters, think that the youth are just gonna sit back and let this happen, but we are not for that at all,” said Jalysa, who asked that her last name not be shared due to safety and privacy concerns. “Walkouts raise awareness; it lets everybody know that youth really do care.”

The students at Overfelt High School are among thousands across the country, from California to Iowa, Texas and Maryland, who have walked out to protest ICE and show solidarity with immigrants in their communities. The walkouts began in early 2025 after Trump’s inauguration, and the tactic reemerged in January following the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the arrest of five-year-old Liam Ramos by federal immigration agents in Minnesota. Mostly led by juniors and seniors, the students organize on Instagram pages and group chats. While many of the walkouts occurred on or around the Nationwide Day of Action on Jan. 30, students have continued holding walkouts and are forming coalitions across schools to expand their reach.

The Jan. 28 walkout at Overfelt High School marked the first anniversary of a walkout Jalysa organized on Instagram after Trump took office in 2025, inspired by videos of other student walkouts. Since that action, which also drew more than half the school, “I felt like my community and my school just changed so much — we all know that we have something in common now,” Jalysa said. “People actually do want to say something — they just want to see somebody starting it, and then they want to continue it and keep going. I had people come up to me after the walkout and say, ‘I want to help.’”

Prior to the walkouts, Jalysa had conversations with her school administration. Her principal said that he would support the students, and nearly every teacher in the school let Jalysa do an in-class presentation to recruit participants.

Jalysa plans to coordinate with students at other schools to plan another big action for May Day.

“My hope would be to see some change, maybe the government will actually realize that what’s going on is bad,” Jalysa said. “Like, why are you taking families apart? Why are you taking people who obey the laws, who pay taxes? I just find that so devastating. They’ve been doing the same tactics for over 100 years with the Natives, with the Japanese and now with the Latinos. It’s really heartbreaking. I just want people to wake up.”

Building to a statewide walkout

Other coalitional efforts are in the works, like California Youth Unite, a group of students from more than 30 schools around the state organizing a walkout on Feb. 27. The coalition works in collaboration with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and advocates for an end to policing and surveillance in addition to advocating for immigrant justice. California Youth Unite co-organizer Lauren Chew said she hopes that a mass mobilization of schools, rather than scattered walkouts, will send a message across California that the youth want ICE out of the state. 

“We were hoping that making this a statewide, coordinated but also decentralized movement would enable us to make sure that our politicians, our local governments and all of the people who are involved in ensuring that ICE operates know that we are still watching and that we didn’t just do it to skip school for one day,” said Chew, who is a high school senior in Orange County, California. “We genuinely care about the safety of our neighbors.” 

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Chew worked with students from San Diego to Sacramento to come up with a list of demands that include the abolition of ICE and transparency in local law enforcement policies, divestment from policing and investment in communities, and protections for students’ free speech. 

She notes that many adult organizers of actions like the Jan. 30 National Shutdown have talked about not going about business as usual — and that students’ business is attending school, so it is their best way to protest.

“We’re drawing attention for disrupting the traditional process [of] going to school,” Chew said. “And I think that’s a really powerful way for us to send a message that the lessons we’re being taught in school — or are supposed to be taught in school — about standing up for justice and freedom need to actually happen. In order for us to do that, we have to take action, even if it means not coming to a class.”

Chew hopes to continue building the network of schools and youth with recurring walkouts, not just a one-time action, and by expanding to offer mutual aid in the community. She also hopes the coalition will help students stay connected to each other once they graduate and go to different schools around the state and country.

Braving repercussions

While Jalysa received support from the Overfelt High School administration for the walkouts, Jaide Kaltenthaler, a 17-year-old student at Rosamond High School in Southern California, had a different experience. When she and a handful of other students approached the administration about their plan to walk out in protest of ICE raids and murders around the country, administrators said that any senior who participated could be banned from prom and barred from the graduation trip to Disneyland without a refund. 

Kaltenthaler and her co-organizers went through with their plan. After a week of promoting it on social media daily, around 100 students had pledged to join. The organizers also arranged an in-school protest for the students who didn’t want to leave school property. 

When Kaltenthaler arrived at school on Feb. 3, the planned day of action, she went straight to the drama room carrying multiple protest signs and supplies to make more. Other organizers brought snacks, water, a first aid kit and more signs. They worked until third period making signs and passed them out during their nutrition break, reminding people that they were walking out. 

When Kaltenthaler walked out of class at 12:20 p.m., dozens of students were already waiting with signs in the quad. Her co-organizer, Isabel Rojas, played Bad Bunny, Green Day and Maná on a speaker. 

The students walked out of the campus gates and down the street waving their signs and chanting “one struggle, one fight, immigrant rights are human rights” in a protest that lasted two hours.

“I thought that it was important to do the walkout and to protest against ICE because they’re killing citizens, terrorizing neighborhoods and tearing apart families,” Kaltenthaler said. “I think that it’s so disheartening and hope to show that there are people who are holding out hope for and fighting for a better future.”

After the walkout, no students faced repercussions. Rojas said many teachers were supportive and said they were proud of the students. She also said many people encouraged them to continue their organizing, and that the support has inspired them to come up with future plans.

Meanwhile, students and faculty at other schools have seen repercussions. In a Virginia high school, 303 students were suspended for participating in a walkout (they responded by walking out again), and another 100 were suspended in a high school in Oklahoma. The attorney general of Texas launched investigations in four school districts, including Dallas and San Antonio, to see if teachers or administrators facilitated the protests. In Los Angeles, a high school teacher got fired for letting students walk out. 

Standing up for the community 

At Covina High School in Southern California, a small group of students attempted to walkout on the Nationwide Day of Action on Jan. 30, but the vice principal restricted them from doing so.

After witnessing their attempt, junior Mireya Rubio was inspired to organize another walkout with more lead time to prepare and promote it. She got the administration to agree to give students a day of excused absence for the walkout.

“This was something that I saw my school wanted to do, it just needed a lot more organization,” Rubio said. “I didn’t see anyone stepping up for it, so I decided that if no one was going to do it, I would.”

Like Jalysa and Kaltenthaler, Rubio made an Instagram page to promote the walkout. Students from her school quickly followed the page. Other nearby schools messaged her that they were also doing walkouts and asked to collaborate. They formed a coalition of seven schools and made a group chat to coordinate a walkout where they would meet in the same spot to draw more attention. They are timing their walkout for Feb. 27 to be part of California Youth Unite’s statewide action.

When Rubio learned about the East Los Angeles Walkouts of 1968 in her AP History class, she never imagined she would be leading one herself. But as the daughter of immigrants in a predominantly Latino community, she feels like it is important to stand up for immigrant justice. 

“I think that’s the big motivation for me, and why I push so hard to do good in school and organize things like this, because I feel like I want to reward my mom’s sacrifices and everything that she’s done for me and my sister,” Rubio said.

“Most of our community is made up of immigrants and Latinos, so I think people just feel connected to it due to affecting their loved ones, and then personally seeing the fear in our parents every time we go out or hear something,” she said. “I feel like that really motivates a lot of people to try to stand up for change.”

This article How 17-year-olds are organizing walkouts against ICE was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2026/02/high-school-walkouts-against-ice/