Nationwide ICE Protest Draws Hundreds of Los Angeles Protesters

Tomorrow, a nationwide shutdown will take effect to protest Trump’s racist agenda, and ICE and Border Patrol’s targeting and killing of our community members. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

We urge you to pledge your support for the National Shutdown here.

We must band together with Minnesota by forcefully condemning and putting an end to ICE’s reign of terror.

We encourage all our members to show support however and wherever they can. This means ceasing any shopping, reaching out to your member of Congress, participating or leading a community action or event, using social media to amplify our demands, or making donations to organizations that are doing the work on the ground.

Just last Friday, CFA members and hundreds of demonstrators gathered in downtown Los Angeles to participate in a nationwide protest against Trump’s ongoing immigration raids.

“Folks came out to show solidarity with migrants, with workers, and to demand that la migra is out of our cities from LA to the Twin Cities to Chicago,” said Michelle Ramos Pellicia, CFA Vice President and CSU San Marcos professor. “We are protesting and demanding an end to the racist regime of hate and terror. We came to the United States to work, to study, to raise our families and we deserve to do so in peace. When I was on stage, I saw the beautiful faces of our Black and Brown people. This is exactly what America looks like. And I am reminded of Frederick Douglass that agitation and protest need to occur, for those in power are not going to concede our rights. We will continue to protest. And through protest, we will take our country back.”

These protests followed the fatal shooting of Renée Good, a poet and mother of three, during an ICE raid in Minneapolis. The Trump administration’s escalation of ICE activities is, by every standard, cruel, sinister, and rooted in racism and xenophobia. The ICE raids rely on racial profiling to target individuals, and attempt to abuse, threaten, and instill fear in anyone who speaks out or organizes against them.

Tensions have since escalated after Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti on January 24. Pretti, an American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669 union member, dedicated his life to serving American veterans as an ICU nurse.

As CFA members, we denounce the killings of Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter Jr. and others killed by federal immigration agents. We also denounce the deaths of over 30 immigrants who died while in ICE detention in 2025, an estimated six in 2026, most of whom were Latinx descent, some of Asian descent, and some of African descent. No one should be made to feel unsafe in their own communities. Our responsibility as union members is to ensure the well-being of our campus members and broader community.

That is why our work as an anti-racism and social justice union matters so much. Our identities are not just reduced to our professional lives; they extend far beyond our workplace. Many of us are parents, children, siblings, friends, and members of broader communities. Pretti was an example of this. He was someone who recognized his responsibility exists beyond his profession. To Pretti, it meant protecting those in his community.

When fear and violence enter our lives and hurt us and the people we love, it can deeply impact how we and our students function in the classroom. From rethinking routine drives to work and school to avoiding public spaces, these deaths exacerbate those concerns.

This sustained anti-immigrant violence demonstrates why union members must rally in solidarity and why broader social justice fights are a part of our fights on campus. If we disregard these crises as beyond our concern, we widen the gaps between our public education system and the communities we serve.

As CFA members, we promote environments that enhance our students’ abilities to succeed and reject those that inhibit them.

If you would like to get involved in finding ways to protect our campus community from the looming threats to immigrants, please get involved with our unionwide Immigration Task Force, or go here for useful resources.