Suffolk Students Stage Walkouts Over ICE Raids; Organizers, Educators Weigh In

Roughly 65 North Shore High School students, led by senior Isa Guerrero, marched onto the sidewalk and held signs and flags in front of their high school on Wednesday, Feb. 4, staging a student-organized walkout to protest recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, LiHerald reports in a March 2 correction. Participants chanted “the people united will never be defeated” and “this is what democracy looks like,” LiHerald recorded.

The North Shore action was one node in a broader wave of late February demonstrations across Long Island and the Tri-State area, the Original Report and Abc7ny say. Abc7ny wrote, “From Mamaroneck High School on Long Island, to Forest Hills in Queens and beyond, teenagers answered the call,” and WABC’s Eyewitness News reported crowds of students staged anti-ICE protests nationwide, including in New York.

In Manhattan, WABC reported students who attended a Foley Square protest marched past 26 Federal Plaza and the immigration court at 201 Varick Street, a location where WABC says there have been reports of ICE agents detaining immigrants at their court hearings. An Instagram post captured in the reporting also said area high school students participated in walkouts Wednesday morning, though the post did not list specific schools.

The group Dare to Struggle is named in Abc7ny and WABC as a primary organizer urging students to walk out. Abc7ny quoted Dare to Struggle saying, “We’re demanding they release all people in ICE detention, that the ICE agents who have killed people and shot and brutalized people should be thrown in prison, and they need to end mass deportations.” Abc7ny also reported the organization urged students to “walk out of their classes and campuses and turn up the heat on ICE,” and WABC noted Dare to Struggle says it is planning a series of speak-outs next month.

Reporting captured student testimony about personal stakes. WABC quoted a high school student saying, “I don't want my family to be deported, and it's scary for me, you know. My family deserved everything they worked hard for everything.” WABC also recorded another student saying, “Some people don't have no choice but other to leave their country in order to provide for their kids.”

LiHerald’s coverage included political context: Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act on Jan. 30, legislation LiHerald says would ban local jails and police from contracting with ICE to allow local police to act as ICE agents. LiHerald reported Nassau County Executive Bruke Blakeman announced his opposition on Monday and said he would fight the proposal.

Abc7ny quoted student organizers saying they will keep protesting until heard, and both Abc7ny and WABC say Dare to Struggle has scheduled follow-up speak-outs next month. The immediate local imprint is clear: a student-led protest of about 65 people at North Shore High School on Feb. 4 joined a larger late-February wave that organizers plan to sustain with public events in the weeks ahead.