Around a hundred University students and Middletown community members protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ongoing national immigration crackdown outside of Usdan University Center on Friday, Feb. 13.
The rally came a day before the funding for the Department of Homeland Security ran out, prompting a departmental shutdown, and a day after the Trump administration announced a partial retreat of ICE agents from Minnesota.
The rally was organized by a new coalition of student advocacy groups called “ICE Out.” Faculty organizations and Middletown advocacy groups, including the Wesleyan Young Socialists, the Wesleyan Democrats, the Sunrise Movement, United Student/Labor Action Coalition, the American Association of University Professors, Middlesex Immigrants Rights Association (MIRA), and the Wesleyan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were involved with the event.
Protesters made handmade signs decrying the Trump administration and calling to abolish ICE. Many referenced the growing militarization of immigration enforcement and the violence in Minnesota and other states as their reason for attending the protest.
Beginning with a series of speakers, the rally was punctuated by chants calling to “stand up, fight back” against the Trump administration and “shame” politicians of both parties supporting the crackdown.
“When ICE is killing people, disappearing people, targeting legal protesters, and just with the rise of authoritarianism in general, I really wanted to get involved,” Flora White ’28 said.
The demonstration was the first time an anti-ICE protest has taken place on campus this semester. Students previously attended an anti-ICE rally in New Haven in solidarity with Minnesotans and those affected by the immigration enforcement surge nationwide.
Members of Indivisible Middlesex, a local chapter of a nationwide progressive advocacy group organizing against many Trump administration policies, also attended the rally.
Indivisible attendees stressed the importance of the event as a means to spread awareness as well as create a network between activists in Middletown and members of the University community.
“I attended the rally at Wesleyan to show support for students who are outraged at the lawless activities of immigration authorities, primarily ICE,” Ed McKeon, a board member of Indivisible Middlesex, said. “I wanted to make contact with students to tell them about the work Indivisible is doing in Middletown.”
McKeon is an active community leader, local activist and long-time Middletown resident. He last organized a vigil honoring victim of federal violence and Minnesotan intensive care nurse Alex Pretti’s life at The Church of The Holy Trinity on Main Street in late January.
This rally came just as ICE has greatly expanded its operations nationwide and after a series of high profile shootings has put increased scrutiny on the agency.
On Thursday, Feb. 12, Border Czar Tom Homan commented on the surge of federal agents in the state. According to Homan, a thousand agents have left since.
However, some agents are expected to stay on to deal with “agitators,” Homan said on CBS’s Face the Nation. Homan stated that the crackdown had made Minnesota “safer” and he considered it “a win.”
“Since the anti-ICE demonstration on Wesleyan’s campus last year, DHS has dramatically scaled up its operations and its violence towards immigrants and citizens in our country,” a statement from Brendan Barry ’28, a Wesleyan Democrats and Wesleyan ACLU spokesperson, read. “It’s made me enormously proud to see that Wesleyan students have scaled up their resistance in response.”
Barry refers here to the protest organized by students last spring for international student protections, academic freedom, and labor rights, in solidarity with international protests held for May Day, or International Workers’ Day.
The protest organizers now intend to organize another mass strike on May 1, with other actions being planned for the coming weeks.
The organizers hosted their first meeting on Saturday, Feb. 14, in Tishler Hall at Exley Science Center.
Around 30 people, mostly University students, were in attendance to discuss law enforcement activities in Middletown and tactics to oppose them. Of particular concern was the Middletown Police Department (MPD) and Middletown Fire Department’s 90-day drone system trial with surveillance company Flock Safety, which is being used to survey locations reported in 911 calls before dispatching personnel.
Meeting attendees were worried about the possibility for federal immigration authorities to access the drones’ license plate reading data. Although the MPD has said that the cameras will not read license plate and that the city has different vendors for traffic safety cameras, students expressed concern over the possibility of the software’s use in the future.
Flock has shared information with federal law enforcement, including ICE, in the past. More recently, the home security company Ring axed its deal with Flock after a controversial Super Bowl advertisement sparked fears that the technology could be used for mass surveillance.
The Middlesex County chapter of Indivisible is hosting a No Kings rally on March 28. They host a protest in Middletown every Saturday on Main Street.
Miles Craven can be reached at mcraven@wesleyan.edu.
Spencer Landers can be reached at sklanders@wesleyan.edu.
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