About 12 Georgetown University students joined a city-wide protest against the increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers across the United States on Jan. 20.
Georgetown’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) created signage in Healy Hall before joining a city-wide protest that condemned the Trump administration’s uptick in ICE deployments. The protest and subsequent march follow the Jan. 7 shooting of U.S citizen Renee Nicole Macklin Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and the aggressive tactics used by law enforcement to shut down Minneapolis protests.
Jackson Schnabel (SFS ʼ27), a student who attended the rally, said Washington, D.C. residents must express their discontent with the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“We need to show that the people of D.C. are completely against this, that we, as I said, we know this is wrong, that we completely reject the militarization of police forces of ICE against the people who live in the United States,” Schnabel told The Hoya.
Schnabel said he hopes the protest inspires others to take action against the Trump administration.
“I want people to be inspired to go out and join protests on their own in the future, if they’re not already there, to know that they can demonstrate,” Schnabel added.
An SJP media liaison at the event, organized in coordination with the Georgetown Coalition for Workers Rights (GCWR) and Georgetown’s chapter of Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front (AJSF), said collective action from multiple student organizations builds solidarity.
“It’s so important for us all to be in community,” the media liaison told The Hoya. “We’re not just here as SJP to talk about one singular point, we understand that all struggles are connected. We are making these posters, and we’re sharing information, we’re sharing Dr. Suri’s fundraiser, just the idea of collective action, how important that is and showing up for people on a broader scale.”
The liaison said that, in light of recent immigration tactics, federal law enforcement agencies should not be allowed to attend recruitment events for Georgetown students.
“We can’t keep acting like it’s business as usual, the National Guard is just walking around, patrolling and making communities of color unsafe,” the liaison said. “So just preventing the entry of federal office levels, preventing the entry of federal agencies and stop recruitment events with them. Because every year, I think they do at least one or two recruitment events with the FBI, the CIA, sometimes DHS. So that’s something that we don’t want: Georgetown to think of its students to be funneled into this pipeline.”
As of Jan. 21, more than 1,000 students, organizations and community members have signed a petition calling on Georgetown University Law Center to exclude ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a virtual public service career fair to be hosted Jan. 23. The petition cites excessive violence used at demonstrations in Minneapolis by law enforcement.
Anna Broderick (SFS ʼ26), another student at the rally, said SJP’s signage event gave students an opportunity to voice their concerns about the university’s own response to the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“I know that there is a city-wide call for a walkout and mobilization downtown today at 14th and U, but I think this poster-making session and the conversations that are happening is a way, not only to strengthen our student community, also to hear from students about how they’ve been feeling about the administration’s response,” Broderick said.
Michael Katski — a member of the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU), a union for all educators in the District of Columbia Public Schools system, and a speaker at the protest — said education is being threatened by ICE’s enforcement and patrolling tactics.
“The WTU has endorsed this march because we know that the fight for public education is inseparable from the fight for justice,” Katski said at the event. “How can a child learn when they’re afraid their parents won’t be able to come home at night? How can we teach justice for all when our government is targeting and terrorizing our students and families?”
Rose Griffis, who attended the march from 14th Street and U Street to the White House, said the protest is a signal of growing discontent among D.C. residents.
“What you’re seeing in the streets right now is encouragement manifesting through the actions of this administration,” Griffis told The Hoya. “We’ve been trying to get these numbers out for the last year. Unfortunately, it took tragedy to make it happen. But now that we have the numbers, and now that we have the people’s attention, hopefully they won’t look away, hopefully their eyes are wide open to the direction that we are headed.”
Katski said D.C. residents are demanding the removal of the National Guard and ICE from their city.
“Tonight is more than a rally, more than a march,” Katski said. “It is a declaration, a declaration that we, the people that make this city run, the teachers, the caregivers, the workers, withhold our consent from this.”
Broderick said Georgetown students must make their voices heard as members of the broader D.C. community.
“It’s really important that our students here recognize that they are also community members of the D.C. community and need to participate, especially those that are privileged,” Broderick said.
“We’re part of this community, we have a responsibility to stand in solidarity and in resistance with our neighbors,” Broderick added.
