California Students Stage Statewide Student Walkout Against ICE

Students across California are walking out of class this week in a coordinated student walkout against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as a statewide action planned for Friday brings together middle schoolers, high schoolers and college students under the "ICE Out" slogan. The walkouts are being promoted by California Youth Unite, a coalition of social justice organizations across the state, with students set to leave campus at 1 p.m. on Friday.

The Reclamation Project, a student and youth-led organization working with the coalition, announced it will host a rally at the state capitol in Sacramento at 4:30 p.m. the same day, giving the student walkout a focal point in the capital. The Sacramento Police Department said it will evaluate any infractions by protesters on a case-by-case basis, with safety as its stated priority.

A 19-year-old founder leads the Sacramento rally

Celine Qin, a 19-year-old Stanford University student, is the founder and executive director of The Reclamation Project. According to EdSource's reporting on the walkouts, she said the movement, in partnership with California Youth Unite, aims to use the student walkout to elevate young people's demands for the defunding and abolition of ICE.

Qin said they know it will be a long process, and that the day aims to show this generation of young people is committed to the cause. The students are not stopping on Friday or ending the conversation, Qin added, calling the rally a marker for the start of other actions.

Social media has become the main organizing tool. Unofficial accounts for schools and districts in the San Fernando Valley, Irvine and Los Angeles spread word of each student walkout, and students from other campuses often join in after seeing a post, widening the reach of each protest.

said Anthony Gamble, a Sacramento Police Department public information officer, in a statement, adding that the department's role during demonstrations is ensuring public safety while safeguarding the rights of individuals to peacefully assemble and lawfully express their views. The statement added that protecting life and property remains a core responsibility and that the department will take appropriate action against those who break the law.

Protests that started in January keep growing

Thousands of students have taken part in anti-immigration enforcement walkouts since January, when two people were killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, sparking outrage and demonstrations. The student walkout movement has grown steadily since then. Students from the Los Angeles Unified School District to Clovis Unified in the Central Valley have organized walkouts this month.

Signs at each student walkout have taken aim at immigration enforcement and the Trump administration: "Abolish ICE," "Education not deportation," "Raise hell, melt ICE" and "Stop detaining children." That last slogan references a photograph of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained after coming home from school in Minneapolis. Other children and teens have been detained as well, including a 15-year-old who was handcuffed at gunpoint by immigration authorities last August during school registration in Los Angeles, according to EdSource.

At a UC Davis demonstration, a student with a megaphone told the crowd that six people had died in ICE custody in the first month of 2026 alone, recounting the stories of Keith Porter Jr., Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were all killed by ICE agents, before leading chants of "Shame!" The chants of "Shame!" closed out the UC Davis student walkout that day.

The broader movement has drawn wide backing. A nationwide shutdown action earlier this year was endorsed by nearly 2,000 organizations across the country, including the California Faculty Association, which represents faculty in the California State University system. Student groups that endorsed the action include MEChA chapters at UC Merced and CSU Dominguez Hills, College Democrats at UC Irvine, UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley Young Democratic Socialists of America and Students for Quality Education at CSU Channel Islands. Supporters frame the student walkout as part of a wider wave of youth political engagement heading into the midterms.

About 83,000 children in California are undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute, though many more have family members who are, a reality that makes migration policy personal for many student walkout participants. Julie Sugarman, associate director for K-12 education research at the institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, said the raids have left some families keeping their children home from school.

Schools respond with warnings and rules

Each student walkout has drawn mixed reactions from school administrators and police. Some schools have threatened suspensions or the loss of student privileges, while others have encouraged students' right to peaceful protest.

the district said in a statement that Los Angeles Unified supports students' rights to express themselves and to advocate for causes that are important to them. "Students may participate in peaceful demonstrations during non-instructional times, within parameters established by site administrators to ensure safety and minimize disruption to learning."

The Los Angeles Police Department released a statement on Feb. 17 warning that students who join a student walkout, and parents who support them, may face legal consequences for violating daytime curfews. In the Central Valley, nearly 200 students walked out of schools in Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified on Feb. 10, according to the Fresno Bee as cited by EdSource. The Clovis district and Clovis police released a joint statement saying they would enforce truancy for students who walk out without following sign-out procedures, and police said they planned to file misdemeanor charges against two adults accused of encouraging students to leave school.

Not every district is taking a hard line. Fresno Unified told families that school sites would support student expression on campus, saying in an announcement that the district respects students' voices and their right to express themselves on issues that matter to them. The California Department of Education has told districts that state law allows middle and high school students one absence per school year for a civic or political event, as long as the school is notified in advance, according to department spokesman Scott Roark. Under that rule, a student walkout can qualify as the year's single excused civic absence.

Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, a Chicana and Chicano studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, drew a line from the current protests to earlier student movements: "You guys are standing in a rich tradition of people who [began to fight] in 1984 against [what would become] Proposition 187, and just like the students in 1968 in East L.A. who stood up and fought back as well."

Why students say they keep showing up

For many of the young people involved, the issue is personal. Justin Eli Santos, a senior at Northridge Academy High School, said increased ICE presence has made his family afraid to leave home. Santos said students feel valued less as humans, calling it unacceptable. His father is an immigrant, he said, and his mother grew up in an immigrant household; he has seen the fear in their eyes just going outside, and no one should be afraid to be outside, he added. That fear is what the student walkout aims to make visible, and supporters describe the action as rights advocacy in its most direct form.

Gabrielle Trujillo, a UCLA sophomore and reporter for the campus magazine La Gente, was among more than 1,000 students who joined a Jan. 28 student walkout. she said everyone was united in frustration over how ICE was treating American citizens, undocumented people and everyone else, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or immigration status.

Ethan Ruiz, a senior at Northridge Academy High School, said immigrants' contributions go unseen. Immigrants do so many good things for America, he said, but people only see the bad. His parents are working people, he said: his mom works hard, his dad works hard, sometimes under the table for less than minimum wage. Without immigrants, he asked, where would the country be. Ruiz's account is one of many personal stories behind the student walkout movement.

Whether Friday's student walkout brings policy change or not, organizers say the point is continuity. Students have turned fear into organized action for months, and the coalition behind this week's action says the Sacramento rally is only the start.