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