Austin, TX – Around 100 people gathered Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Texas Capitol to protest the ICE murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, and Trump’s ongoing campaign of deportations, raids and ICE terror against immigrants across the country.

Jesse Valdelamar, of the Austin Immigrant Rights Action Committee, led the rally. He kicked things off with a round of energetic chants such as, “When ICE attacks, we fight back,” and “No more ICE, no more walls, free our families, free them all!”

Sofia Gomez of Austin Students for a Democratic Society told the crowd, “They call other human beings aliens, ICE using children as bait. Shame! Uncle Sam has no conscience. These systems function like they were meant to.”

Gomez continued, “But don’t be discouraged. We have the power to change this. We are the majority. We have air in our lungs, and we have the power to fight!”

Sameeha Risvi, civic engagement coordinator from CAIR Texas, said, “The people showing their faces, chanting in the streets, and demanding justice are not the danger. If we want to talk about rogue, masked agents, let’s talk about ICE. ICE operates in masks. ICE refuses accountability. ICE tears families apart in the shadows, and then calls it law enforcement.”

Risvi told multiple stories of immigrants who have been separated from their families, brutalized, detained, or killed at the hands of ICE agents.

Reflecting back on the George Floyd uprising in 2020, Jesse Valdelamar said, “We cannot let Alex Pretti and Renee Good die in vain. Remember that just six years ago, the people were able to send Trump and his lackeys on the run. We can and will do it again!”

Valdelamar ended off his speech with a call to action, “If you want to make a real impact and change the terrible direction this country is going, then join an organization and build the real movement on the streets!” The crowd responded with a resounding, “¡Sí, se puede!”

#AustinTX #TX #ImmigrantRights #AIRAC #SDS #CAIR #AlexPretti