Anti-ICE demonstrations are growing in Chico.
Around a thousand people turned out near the Chico mall on Saturday to join protests against President Donald Trump and his administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The action followed another demonstration at Chico State on Friday that drew around 200 people.
The protests were energized after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration agents during enforcement operations in Minneapolis this month.
One of the people killed was VA intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti. That was after the earlier fatal shooting of Renee Good, which helped spark a national movement called “ICE Out For Good.”
NPR reports that federal officials have opened a civil rights investigation into the killing of Pretti, but have not launched a similar review into the shooting of Good. Minnesota officials have been excluded from the federal review, and say they may still pursue charges once their own investigations are complete.
Saturday protest stretches from Bikeway 99 to WinCo
Demonstrators gathered near the Chico mall on the new Bikeway 99 bridge on Saturday. They also lined both sides of East 20th Street stretching in a line almost to WinCo.
More young people were there than at recent protests, including Butte College student Chloe Onstot who commented on the large turnout.
“People are seeing this is wrong and acknowledging that,” Onstot said. “I’m hopeful that’s going to continue to grow, but I guess I get a little pessimistic on how many people are going to have to get hurt in the process.”
Chico resident Hallie Miller, 22, said she was there because she believes the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on immigrants isn’t about race and masks a deeper agenda.
“It’s an issue of the top and the bottom,” Miller said. “Immigrants are being used as a distraction to blame all our issues on them when actually it could be people in the lower classes, which is the majority of U.S. citizens coming together.”
Saturday’s demonstration follows earlier coordinated protests in Chico, the broader North State and nationwide.
Chico State protest precedes larger weekend demonstration
Demonstrators nationwide and in Chico left schools, left work and avoided shopping on Friday as part of the broader protest.
A couple hundred Chico students joined in the demonstration, though the vast majority of local businesses stayed open during a related general strike.
One graduate student – who declined to be named – said she’s a daughter of immigrants and it’s painful to see Trump’s aggressive tactics play out.
“Sometimes it feels very isolating and lonely to see constant videos on social media and being inundated with violence towards my people and not being able to do anything,” she said, “so being here today is the one small thing I can do.”
James Carlson, a campus organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine, offered some advice for young people who are wondering what they can do.
“Find community and organize with them and protect yourselves and understand that this stuff doesn’t go away on its own,” Carlson said. “It takes protests, it takes direct action to make change.”
After rallying at the university, protesters wound downtown chanting slogans like “no KKK,” “no fascist USA” and “the people united will never be divided.”
A candlelight vigil to remember Pretti is scheduled for Sunday on the Enloe hospital campus.
