Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, March 10, over two dozen students gathered at the University of Illinois Chicago east campus’s quad to demand that UIC administration set a precedent for a true sanctuary campus now.

The rally was organized by Mexican Students of Aztlan’s (MeSA) Educación, Resistencia y Activismo (ERA) committee and was a part of a broader week of action events that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the first megamarches that occurred on March 10, 2006 in Chicago.

The rally included speakers from New Students for a Democratic Society, the Immigrants’ Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and Mexican Students of Aztlan.

Ileanne Cecilio, a member of MeSA and the emcee of the rally began by sharing the importance of the day which signifies 20 years since the megamarches and how the struggles for immigrant rights is far from over, especially at UIC. Cecilio elevates the work of the many immigrant rights activists who have built up the movement where it is today and UIC’s history of student activism to get the resources that exist for students now such as the Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES) and the Latino Cultural Center. They also raise the demands of MeSA’s current sanctuary campus campaign in needing the current administration to take a stand for their students and not continue the capitulation to Trump's racist agenda.

“We are living during interesting times of uncertainty and oppression by the U.S. government,” began Ikzael Hernandez, ERA’s committee lead. “We need to stand together and be on the same page, not only within the boundaries of this UIC institution but beyond.”

Another student and member of MeSA, Briseida Buitron, shared a powerful poem, “Our people keep fighting. We’re here and they don’t like it! Kick us all out, but we come back marching.”

Gianna Escareno from the Immigrant Rights Working Committee stated, “We must continue to show solidarity from Chicano liberation to Black liberation, Palestinian liberation, workers’ rights, women and LGBTQ rights and of course immigrants’ rights because we know that the attack on our communities won’t end until we fight back, resist and until all of us are free!”

Students then marched across campus and to University Hall as they chanted “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!” and “Sanctuary campus now!”

Student organizers encouraged those present to join one of the many progressive student organizations like MeSA, New Students for a Democratic Society or Anakbayan who are all fighting for various struggles on campus.

They encourage people to support Mexican Students of Aztlan as they continue to build their campaign for a sanctuary campus at UIC and stay tuned for future actions. They are on Instagram @mesaatuic.

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #ImmigrantRights #MESA #SDS #SDSatUIC #UIC

Chicago, IL – On March 19, New Students for a Democratic Society (New SDS) held a campus town hall meeting to demand campus administrators increase funding for cultural centers, protect DEI, and declare a sanctuary campus. A crowd of around 50 students faced the three administrators who were seated next to a podium to hear students’ testimony.

The event opened with Gio Araujo from New SDS. Gio Araujo stating, “We have made it loud and clear: properly defend and fund our cultural centers. Raise the funding for the cultural centers to hire students on campus.”

“All students have a right to an education that is meaningful and accessible to them, one that meets their academic and cultural needs. No compliance with Trump is the only acceptable option for our administration,” continued Araujo.

Ileanne Cecilio, speaking on behalf of Mexican Students de Aztlan (MeSA), said, “What we are here to advocate for, and demand is only a continuation of the work that has been done by many activists and students before us. Our current MeSA campaign demands we be a true sanctuary campus for our students.” Cecilio highlighted UIC’s inaction when two women were detained outside a campus building last October.

Jacob Belencion from Anakbayan said, “UIC needs to show its commitment through action. Show your students that you are on the side of your diverse student population, not the side of the administration shutting us down.”

After opening speeches the event transitioned to public comment. Xzavier Jones from New SDS said, “I find it unbelievable that UIC doesn't feel the need to move with urgency when it comes to defending the spaces that their minority population frequents.”

After public comment, the three attending administrators gave introductions and answered questions from the students. Michael Ginsburg, special advisor to the chancellor for student affairs, insisted that declaring a sanctuary campus would “put a target on our back”. He went on to say that the city of Chicago had done this by declaring itself a sanctuary city. This was met with disapproval from the crowd.

River from New SDS led the crowd in a final chant: “Dare to struggle! Dare to win!” Organizers of the event encouraged students to join endorsing organizations in continuing to raise these demands. The event was endorsed by Anakbayan, Mexican Students de Aztlan (MeSA), Black Student Union, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, UIC United Faculty Union, Sanctuary for All, College Democrats and Latinos Unidos.

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #SDS #MeSA

Chicago, IL – On Friday, January 30, over 80 University of Illinois at Chicago students walked out of their classes and rallied in the quad in support of the people of Minneapolis and their current battle against ICE following the murders of Renee Good and Alex Preeti.

The rally, organized by the New Students for a Democratic Society at UIC (SDS) and the Mexican Students de Aztlan (MeSA), was called only two days earlier, yet students rose to the occasion.

Sathvika Gowda, a member from New SDS at UIC started the rally off by commending the effort of all the students braving the cold, stating, “Minneapolis shows us that protesting works, standing up and demanding ICE out of our cities is the only war forward!”

Gowda continued, “Fund and defend our cultural centers. SDS and other orgs on campus held a town hall on Tuesday, where we directly confronted our administration about the cultural centers. They told us quietly that they had a plan to fund them. Rather than actually listening to students they gave us empty statements of ‘support!’”

Ellison Radek of the Housing Staff United union at UIC stated, “We know as student leaders, and as activists, and as workers that the University of Illinois has a history of parading its student workers and leaders around while refusing to listen to our asks when we’re begging for support, we are begging for safety, we’re begging for justice on our own campus!”

Radek continued, “They are using our tuition and our tax dollars against us. We’re asking for support for our cultural centers. We’re asking for an ICE-free campus. We are a minority-serving institution, a Hispanic-serving institution and it is reprehensible that UIC does nothing to protect its student body. Shame on them!”

Brick Nistow, of New SDS at UIC, emphasized, “Community looks like this right here. People standing together in solidarity against the racist, reactionary forces that seek to destroy our communities. And that is what they want to do. They want to divide us because they know that if we stand together, we are unstoppable. But we will not let them divide us. We will not let them destroy us!”

Representing the Freedom Road Socialist Organization Chicago, Victor Silva stated, “I think it’s about time that we, the masses, the multinational working class unite with all oppressed nationalities and toss the U.S. empire into the dustbin of history. It is no exaggeration to say that millions of people have taken to the streets since Trump took office. We can be certain that millions more are joining us now. We will fan the flames, we will unite the many and defeat the few. Together – we will make the U.S. ungovernable!”

Before students began to march, Angel Naranjos, a member of the MeSA, gave a final speech to the crowds of students stating, “We say that as a HSI (Hispanic Serving Institute), as a university with an extremely large number of Chicano, Mexican, Latino, immigrant students and students from mixed status families, UIC has a responsibility to stand up against Trump’s administration and set the example for universities around the country for what a sanctuary campus should look like!”

Students then marched towards their University Hall and around campus chanting “ICE out now!” and “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!”

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #ImmigrantRights #ICE #SDS #MESA

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, January 27, over 50 community members from progressive student, staff organizations and unions at the University of Illinois Chicago came together to hold UIC administration accountable. They demanded funding for the Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change (CCUSC), ICE off campus, and real transparency from administration regarding decisions that are important to the safety of the UIC community.

This town hall resulted from months of coalition building between progressive organizations and on campus unions that have been dissatisfied with how UIC administration has responded throughout the racist, reactionary Trump agenda.

Before this town hall, the UIC administration had been having closed-door meetings with various populations on campus, refusing to bring all of them together for one honest conversation. It was discovered that in these meetings, the administration had been spinning different stories about policies regarding ICE and the funding of the cultural centers behind closed doors, making the importance of a community-led town hall extremely evident.

Despite inviting Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, the Vice Chancellor of Engagement Lionel Allen, and the Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Ginsburg, only Lionel Allen and Michael Ginsburg were in attendance.

Listen to us

Organizers from New Students for a Democratic Society (New SDS) and Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA) introduced the town hall with opening statements on behalf of their organizations.

Sathvika Gowda, a member of New SDS began by citing the ongoing struggle to fund the CCUSC, stating, “We are standing here today to demand our administration make a public commitment to fund our cultural centers. And follow through with it. We will not stop protesting, we will not stop fighting and pressuring our admin until our cultural centers are properly funded!”

Ileanne Cecilio, a co-chair of the Educación, Resistencia y Activismo (ERA) Committee of MeSA, raised the need for a sanctuary campus and cited the ICE abduction of two women on campus during the fall semester, “Some of our members, who are all rapid response trained and are a part of RR networks at UIC, Chicago and/or surrounding suburbs, actively played a role in responding to the situation that day, something that our administration and UICPD have been incapable of addressing, much less responding effectively.”

After the opening statements, Sanele Stewart and Emma Adaya from New SDS moderated public comment in which community members and members from progressive organizations and unions raised their demands of the UIC administration.

Ray Cave, a community member at UIC, spoke on the lack of Filipino representation at UIC and the continued struggle for a Tagalog class at UIC, “We have contributed so much to UIC’s supposed ‘diversity’ and yet, we see no to little resources or representation in our educational space. We have one Filipino class in our GLAS program but no access to cultural or language resources. This is exactly why we are advocating for a Filipino language class on our campus.”

Macy Miller, the outreach chair for GEO, said, “We are not paid enough to do our work. You know it. We know it. We feel it in our anxiety when our monthly utility bills loom. We feel it in our perpetual stress managing rent and groceries alongside research and instruction. We feel it trying to take care of our kids, our parents, and our partners amidst the rapid inflation and overall insecurity of the economy. But we also feel it in the complete mismatch between the high quality work we do and what little our university thinks that is worth. UIC only works because we do.”

Community members addressed the administration's lack of preparedness for March of 2026, citing former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino’s threat to send upwards of 1000 ICE agents to Chicago after Operation Midway Blitz. Organizers and non-affiliated community members alike expressed their fears for the coming months and their anger with the UIC administration’s lackluster response so far. A member of the Union of Puerto Rican Students stated, “It is your job to listen to us! It is your job to keep us safe!”

On what UIC United Facutly is bringing to the bargaining table regarding ICE on campus and the need for increased funding of the CCUSC, Jeff Gore, UIC UF’s vice president of the common good stated,” We want to come to the student groups to find out what it is that you want from this, because we want to make sure that we’re all on the same page about this. We want to make sure that we’re working together and that we’re talking about this publicly. The administration very often is working in the shadows, let us be the shadow cabinet.”

Jax George, a member of New SDS at UIC said, “And while it may seem like we have made little progress, we have made so much! We have forced the administration to come to the table, especially tables such as this one, something we could have never even imagined to occur before.”

At the end of the public comment, moderators gave the present UIC administrators the chance to respond. Both gave lackluster responses that did not address the concerns of the community. These responses caused a heated impromptu Q&A between attendees and Lionel Allen, who at that point was the only remaining administrator present.

A majority of the questions raised surrounded the UIC administration’s plans, or lack thereof, to address ICE presence on campus in the coming semester. Allen’s responses revealed that the UIC administration had no concrete plan of how to or if they were actually going to notify students of ICE presence on or near campus, despite making promises over a month ago that it was something they were discussing. In this debate, Allen also dissuaded rapid response organizing and encouraged students and faculty not to intervene in ICE activity, all the while having no proposed alternatives.

Having to cut the town hall short, Emma Adaya finished the event by leading the audience in a chant: “Dare to struggle! Dare to win!”

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #SDS #MESA

Chicago, IL – On January 23, Chicagoans across the city targeted various Target locations to protest the corporation’s support for ICE terror.

The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) led and mobilized people to the Target in Hyde Park. This included members from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), Mexican Students de Aztlan (MeSA), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Anti-War Committee Chicago (AWC) and more.

Outside the Target store in Hyde Park, Kobi Guillory, a member of CTU stated, “We are here in solidarity with our siblings in Minnesota who are right now 100K strong outside of the Target Center saying that Target should stop helping ICE. Target should stop its complicity with the violence that ICE is inflicting on Black and brown communities. Just the other day, Target employees in Minnesota were abducted by ICE in a Target. Did Target take a stand to defend their employees? Did they take a stand to defend the communities who make Target’s profits?”

Guillory continued, “We are demanding that Target honor the Fourth Amendment that you cannot be subject to unlawful search and seizure inside your workplace. This is illegal, what ICE is doing. We the people are going to use our people and we are going to force these corporations and elected officials to do the right thing.”

Inside the Target store, protesters delivered a list of demands to the store manager, including, “Call for an end to the ICE surge in Minnesota, and for ICE to leave the state; we want Target to affirm the Fourth Amendment; we want Target to post signage prohibiting ICE from entering their buildings, and we want Target to publicly call on congress to stop funding ICE.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #CATA #CTU #CAARPR #MESA #USPCN #AWCChicago

Fight Back! News is circulating the following statement from the New Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois Chicago (New SDS at UIC).

New Students for a Democratic Society at UIC is proud to announce that we’ve successfully pushed UIC administration to commit to increasing funding for all seven cultural centers on campus! In the era of Trump 2.0, this is an important victory in the struggle to defend diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. When we dare to struggle, we dare to win!

There's no way around it – this victory is a result of the countless hours of organizing by the coalition of forces on campus fighting to defend the cultural centers. New SDS at UIC has been at the forefront of this fight since the launching of our campaign to increase funding for cultural centers earlier this Fall. We’ve maintained a strong pressure on UIC administration throughout the semester with days of action, protest rallies & marches, open-letter deliveries, petition signatures, coalition-building, speaking out at the Board of Trustees, meeting with administration, and much more.

We would like to salute the Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change (CCUSC) Student Workers Alliance, Anakbayan at UIC, Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA), Students for Justice in Palestine at UIC, and so many others for their solidarity with our campaign and outstanding organizing over the course of this semester. Without their efforts, this victory could not have been won as quickly as it was.

In a meeting with administrators a couple weeks ago called for by MeSA and attended by members of New SDS at UIC, Dr. Lionel Allen (Vice Chancellor for Equity and Diversity) and Dr. Michael Ginsburg (Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Student Affairs) acknowledged our organizing efforts and claimed that the seven cultural centers at UIC would be receiving increased funding sufficient to reverse the 5% budget cut previously carried out by UIC administration.

On top of this, Dr. Allen and Dr. Ginsburg promised a further increase in the operational budgets for the centers. This would secure the ability of the CCUSC to effectively operate the programming, events, space, and so much more that is near and dear to the UIC student body – something that was on the road to being slashed altogether by UIC administrators.

However, these UIC administrators were also strangely quiet on the details regarding the funding changes. So, we held a meeting with cultural center representatives. At this meeting, we confirmed the extent of our victory. While we know this is a clear win for our primary demand of the UIC administration to increase funding for our cultural centers, we also know that this fight is still ongoing.

We demand a clear statement from UIC administration that they will follow through with their promises! We will not stop fighting until all of our cultural centers – the Arab American Cultural Center, Asian American Resource Cultural Center, Black Cultural Center, Disability Cultural Center, Gender Sexuality Center, Latino Cultural Center, and the Women’s Leadership Resource Center – get what they deserve!

Join us this upcoming Spring as we continue this fight and bring our demands to the Board of Trustees meeting in Chicago on Thursday, January 15th! If you’d like to get involved with our campaign, please consider getting organized and attending one of our weekly meetings this winter break to help us secure this victory.

When Cultural Centers Are Under Attack – Stand up and Fight Back!

#StudentMovement #SDS #CulturalCenters #CCUSC #MeSA #SJPUIC #SWA #Anakbayan

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, February 11, over 70 students rallied and marched at the University of Illinois at Chicago to defend immigrant rights after a rise in ICE raids.

The protest was called by New Students for a Democratic Society at UIC (New SDS at UIC) in coordination with the emergency national week of action called by National New SDS. Some of the endorsing campus organizations included Anakbayan, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA), Jewish Student Collective (JSC), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), and Radical Public Health (RPH).

John Emiliano of Anakbayan at UIC spoke of how the ICE raids have been impacting the Filipino community, stating, “Our own Chicago Consulate of the Philippines have reported that ‘no Filipinos have been affected by the ICE deportations in Illinois’. But we know as people on the ground, having to see and live these conditions every day, what the truth is. We’ve heard many cases across the country and locally of the cruelties of detentions and deportations.”

Emiliano continued on how Filipino groups and communities have been fighting back, “Tanggol Migrante Chicago has been stepping up its know-your-rights information campaign and has been dropping off the KYR cards in Filipino stores and restaurants around the city. We have created mutual help clusters, support groups, and rapid response teams so we can follow up to protect and prepare our people.”

A member of SJP at UIC spoke out about the fear following the attacks by the Trump administration, stating, “These actions have affected major communities near us, in many places where people who are trying to just get by with whatever money they make that day. They struck fear into many business owners in places like Pilsen, Little Village, and countless other neighborhoods where Black and brown people are fighting to build a better world.”

Speaking on behalf of the FRSO, Giotl Araujo stated, “U.S. monopoly-capitalism has treated places in the global south, like Latin America, where it can exploit the locals, loot the resources, and destroy their political life, like its backyard. U.S. imperialists have destroyed the livelihoods of various peoples of Latin America, at the expense of fattening their pockets.”

After the program, despite the freezing cold, students marched around campus, and past the University Hall, making their chants loud and clear. “¿Que queremos? ¡Legalización!” (What do we want? Legalization!) and “¡Trump, escucha, estamos en la lucha!” (Trump, listen, we are in the fight back!) echoed throughout campus.

Threats of the reactionary Trump agenda are seeping their way into even the most self-described “progressive” universities, like UIC, which have already shown itself in the first three weeks of Trump’s administration. Earlier this month, word had spread around UI-Health, quietly enforcing Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care for youth and students under age 19. This was then backtracked after students and youth protested this outrageous decision.

While the university has stated that it will not work with ICE to deport immigrant students, UIC police have been used as the buffer to deal with any attempts ICE makes at deportations. Students have made it clear they want a sanctuary campus with no ICE agent stepping foot on campus. New SDS at UIC and progressive students will mobilize to pressure the University of Illinois Chicago to not comply with the Trump agenda!

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #SDS #SJP #MeSA #JSC #FRSO #Feature