Hundreds of Texas public school students walked out of classes on Friday as part of a national movement protesting immigration enforcement in the wake of the fatal shootings of two American citizens in January by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Students in Austin, Waco, San Antonio and elsewhere wielded signs and flyers protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as they walked out of classes. In downtown Austin on Friday afternoon, dozens of students could be seen heading toward the state Capitol down Congress Avenue before the start of a 5:30 p.m. protest. Austin Independent School District officers were nearby monitoring the students.
Gov. Greg Abbott condemned the Austin walkout and use of school officers in a social media post Friday evening and directed the Texas Education Commissioner to investigate the matter, stating school resources are not for “political indoctrination.”
“[Austin ISD] gets taxpayer dollars to teach the subjects required by the state, not to help students skip school to protest,” Abbott said.
The New Braunfels Independent School District released a statement acknowledging walkouts at their campuses, and said students would be marked absent if they participated and disciplined for “actions that disrupt instruction or pose safety concern.”
A few hundred students from the University of Texas at Austin also walked from their campus to the Capitol, joining the high school students and other citizens who were already protesting there.
Speakers during the protest, many of whom called for the dismantling of ICE, repeatedly condemned federal immigration officers for the two separate occasions in which Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37-year-old Minneapolis residents, were killed. Good was shot on Jan. 7 while attempting to drive away as ICE agents tried to get her out of her vehicle. Pretti was tackled and fatally shot on Jan. 24 by a Border Patrol officer as Pretti was helping a civilian up off the ground during a protest.
Some Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and House Rep. Michael McCaul, have called for investigations into Pretti’s killing.
At least two people were detained by Department of Public Safety officers on Capitol grounds early on in the protest, but most of the demonstration and subsequent march through downtown Austin occurred without issue.
For Austin Community College student Maya Escamilla, the Capitol rally was her first. She said she had to take action after hearing concerns from her family about ICE.
“After seeing just one thing after another, it’s just getting worse and worse and worse,” Escamilla said. “It’s so out of hand. It’s not even about politics, and just [about] morals at this point.”
UT Austin professor Zenzi Griffin joined protesters at the Capitol with a sign describing ICE as “new slave patrols” and called the Trump administration’s immigration policy the most pressing issue amid “so many horrible things.”
“I feel like I can’t just sit by, it’s time to act,” Griffin said. “A couple protesters got killed, but people are dying in detention, families are being ripped apart, and this is not the first time the U.S. government has attacked people in the same way.”
The protests were coordinated as part of the “National Shutdown” movement nationwide, with listed endorsements from hundreds of groups including several in Texas like the North Texas Area Labor Federation and the Southeast Texas Impact Initiative.
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