LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Hundreds of high school students joined protests in downtown Los Angeles that have clogged streets and freeways and prompted police responses, and the City Council is reviewing proposals to protect immigrants and protesters Wednesday.
The walkouts to protest federal immigration policies continued for the third day in a row, and included a march through downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday for “A Day Without Immigrants” demonstrations.
The students who walked out are believed to be from Garfield, Lincoln and Marshall high schools, Fox 11 reported. A large group of student protesters gathered outside City Hall and then walked down Cesar Chavez, according to Fox 11.
Some of the students gathered on the Main Street overpass of the Hollywood (101) Freeway downtown and eventually rallied near Olvera Street then marching toward City Hall.
Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced series of proposals at the Los Angeles City Council meeting on Tuesday designed to strengthen labor and immigration protections for immigrants. “This legislation sends a clear message: Los Angeles will not be complicit in [President Donald] Trump’s dehumanizing agenda,” said Soto-Martínez, who chairs the council committee on immigration, equity and civil rights. “We will fight back and protect our community.
“My own parents were undocumented, and they built a life here without the constant fear that a trip to work or taking me to school could tear our family apart,” Soto-Martinez told ABC 7, where he was joined by councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez,” Imelda Padilla and Ysabel Jurado. “Every Angeleno deserves that same safety and dignity.”
By early afternoon, the students were in the area of Hill and First streets, while a second group was marching on Spring Street near Temple Street. Police reported that the demonstration was peaceful, although students were marching in traffic lanes.
The student demonstrations came one day after an hours-long rally, march and protest in downtown Los Angeles that also focused on the 101 Freeway overpasses downtown. That gathering was for the most part peaceful, but turned unruly in the early evening after police declared an unlawful assembly and tried to move the crowd away from the freeway.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a dispersal order for immigration protesters outside City Hall, directing protesters to move west through Grand Park or be subject to arrest. Around 6 p.m. Tuesday, LAPD officers announced they had arrested a man on suspicion of felony vandalism following the destruction of several buildings and a Waymo vehicle while participating in the immigration protest demonstration, the Los Angeles Times reported.
According to The Times, Garfield students covered the walls of their campus with chalk messages such as “Immigrants make America great again,” “Mexicans make the world go round,” “I’m doing this for my father” and “Brown n proud.”
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has acted on his campaign promise to increase deportations, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting raids in major cities. Immigration was a major focal point of his campaign, with Trump vowing to conduct mass deportations, expelling people in the country illegally — particularly those charged or convicted of crimes. He vowed to deploy the military as part of that effort.
In an interview last month, Trump called illegal immigration “an invasion of our country,” and vowed to carry out his deportation plans regardless of cost.
“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump told NBC News shortly after his election. “It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
Trump insisted that voters — including Latinos — support his call for legal immigration only.
“They want to have borders,” Trump said. “And they like people coming in, but they have to come in with love for the country. They have to come in legally.”
According to Reuters, despite Trump’s strong stance on immigration and deportations, his first presidential administration saw fewer people deported than during the term of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. More people were deported under President Joe Biden in 2024 than during any single year of Trump’s first presidency, Reuters reported.
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