By Alice Bahr
On Friday, January 23rd, Poly students stood up and walked out of class in protest of ICE and in solidarity with the Minneapolis community. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal agency that states their mission is to “Protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.” However, recent events with ICE officers have made many citizens doubt whether ICE’s work in the community is reflective of their mission statement. ICE was established in 2003 as a branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created by the Homeland Security Act which was meant to address the tragic events of 9/11 and protect national security going forward. According to their website, they have over 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel around the world and they receive an annual budget of $8 billion.
ICE agents take a 13-week ICE-D training program that consists of Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) training and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training. However, they are not required to have graduated from a police academy nor have any prior first responder training. Additionally ICE agents are not trained in effective de-escalation tactics that are often used by people who work in high stress jobs in the community. These factors, among others, may have contributed to events such as the tragic shooting of Renee Good and the deaths and abuses of many other people while in ICE custody.
Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the American Immigration Council, 6 other people have died while in ICE custody this year.
Minneapolis has been a central location in the ICE conflict and protests, since DHS deployed over 3000 federal agents to Minnesota in early January. In Minnesota they have conducted arrests, deportations, and now two fatal shootings of American citizens. Following the death of Renee Good, protests, vigils, and demonstrations broke out across the area. This included a major ICE protest on January 23rd, known as “ICE Out of Minnesota”. The protest encouraged people to walk out of work and school, and not make purchases from businesses, with the slogan “No school! No work! No shopping!”
These protests spread across the nation and caused strikes and walkouts in many areas, including the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Poly students walked out the building at 2pm on January 23rd, in support of the Minnesota community and in protest of immigration enforcement activity, with another protest planned for February 12. The protesters exited through the back gym and side entrances, meeting near the street above the field. This group of approximately 100 students and staff circled around the Poly/Western campus shouting chants like, “NO MORE ICE,” waving the Minnesota state flag, and holding up signs that read “RESIST,” “BALTIMORE STANDS WITH MINNESOTA,” and “FIGHT FACISM!”
Some students shared how it felt to be a part of the protest and walkout. Poly junior Jaileen Johnson said “It felt uniting, it was cold outside but it was really nice to make up the chants, it was really nice to talk to the people, it was really nice knowing people stood with the cause and weren’t all just talk. Maybe some people used it to skip school, but the people who protested really stood for what they believed in and were out in the front yelling, it meant a lot.”
Poly junior Walker Hutchinson said, “I thought it was well put together, and it genuinely seemed to me that a lot of people cared about this issue enough to make that happen. It’s all the students who came together, WE made this happen.” This student also shared how he exited through the back entrance, and for a while there were only a few students there, then a whole group came walking down from the side door.
Another couple of students said they “felt empowered, courageous, united for a common cause, for the greater good.”
One group of students walked out of Ms. Sherrod’s room, carrying a pack of poster paper and some markers to create signs on the field such as this one, reading “NO 🧊.”
Students were free to make their own decision to walkout and join the protest, and those who did each had their reasons. When junior Jaileen Johnson was asked why he chose to join the protest, he responded “…what they [ICE] do is criminal and unjust, it goes against the constitution, it goes against a lot of what I believe in, what I was raised upon.”
One of the organizers of the protest shared that he is “against ICE activity everywhere, especially here in Baltimore not just Minnesota,” which motivated him to support the walkout.
While some students made the choice to not join the protest, many other students shared that they did not join because they were unaware that the walkout was happening, or they only learned about it moments before it occurred. For those who were aware of the protest, they learned about it through flyers handed out in advisory, social media, student group chats, or through word of mouth. For 11th grade student Jaileen Johnson, he received a flyer passed out in advisory, then sent a message out regarding the protest in the Class of 2027 group chat. Another student learned of the protest through Instagram, having seen it posted on someone’s story.
Protests have continued, springing up all across the country, as Americans grow outraged with the actions of ICE. Even here in Baltimore, residents joined in the national shutdown protest against ICE by marching through the streets of downtown Baltimore on January 30th. Other high schools have also organized their own protests such as Baltimore City College, who hosted a walkout on February 5th. Poly students hosted a second protest on February 12. While these protests are only the first step in creating real change in administrative decisions and immigration enforcement activities, it is a necessary step that allows the community to generate publicity for the cause and show local legislators how residents stand on this issuI,
