Madison, WI – On Tuesday, January 27, over 1000 students from UW-Madison and the surrounding area joined Madison Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to protest the murders of Alex Pretti, Renee Good and Keith Porter by ICE agents. Students rallied for ICE out of the Midwest and demanded that UW-Madison be made a sanctuary campus.

Protesters filled Madison’s Library Mall in -10 degree wind chill, chanting “ICE ICE will be beat, when the people hit the street!” as they settled in to hear the first speech of the night from Jewish voices for Peace on the importance of Holocaust Remembrance Day and the parallels with current ICE operations. Then there was a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of ICE.

After the moment of silence were chants from the crowd, calling for “Justice for Keith Porter! Justice for Renee Good! Justice for Alex Pretti!” The explosive energy from the crowd was emblematic of a large portion of the student body, whose calls for the abolition of ICE have been heard throughout the week.

In the final speech of the night, Luca Motivala, co-chair of Madison SDS, closed his speech with the remark, “We will not forget those they murdered, those who will be murdered, the faces and names and memories will live on eternally. We will neither forgive nor forget those who perpetrated this violence; they believe they are invincible, untouchable. It will not be that way. Their day will come!”

Students ended the rally with calls to “Shut it down” if UW-Madison administration did not implement sanctuary campus policies.

#MadisonWI #WI #ImmigrantRights #ICE #KillerICE #AlexPRetti #SDS #StudentMovement #Featured