Students at multiple schools in Los Angeles, California, walked out of class Thursday to protest in defense of immigrants and against deportations. Hundreds of students at at least seven different schools, including Venice High, Westwood and Santa Monica High School, participated in Thursday’s walkouts.
This is the fifth day in a row that protests drawing hundreds, or thousands, of people have taken place in Los Angeles in response to the fascistic attack on immigrants spearheaded by President Donald Trump, but co-signed by the complicit Democratic Party, which provided Trump the necessary votes to fast-track the Laken Riley Act.
The bipartisan assault on immigrants, coupled with Trump’s mass pardoning of his January 6 goons, has created an environment in which MAGA-reactionaries and racists feel emboldened to harass and intimidate anyone they suspect of being “illegal.”
On Thursday, Los Angles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho acknowledged that the district was “aware of reports that individuals alleging to be law enforcement or ICE agents have approached some in our community. This has the effect of generating fear within our communities.”
The New York Times also reported on Thursday that three people in three different states have already been charged with impersonating immigration police since Trump was inaugurated last month. None of the arrests have occurred in California.
Thursday’s walk-outs followed two significant pro-immigrant and anti-Trump demonstrations in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The first protest on Wednesday involved nearly 1,000 high school students. The students converged in downtown Los Angeles and marched through various streets to voice their support for immigrant rights and express opposition to the recent mass deportations initiated by the Trump administration.
Later in the day, several hundred protesters gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall. This assembly was part of the nationwide “50501 Movement” which called for 50 protests in 50 states for one day. Demonstrators carried signs with messages such as “Nobody is illegal,” and “Immigrants make America great,” emphasizing their call for an end to Trump’s deportations.
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke with students and workers at both demonstrations.
A Grand Arts student told the WSWS, “We walked out and we joined the giant demonstration where we walked around downtown L.A. and we were, you know, fighting for our immigrant family and friends’ rights.
“There should be no borders,” she added. “People come here for a better life, because they have to escape from so many bad things, and they come here looking for a better life, and then we just send them back, or we subject them to even worse. And I just think it is unfair. No one is illegal.”
While she, herself, is not a recent immigrant, “I have friends who have family who are immigrants and I want to fight for them.”
A veteran at the Los Angeles rally, who wished to remain anonymous, said the main reason he came to the rally was in response to Trump’s attacks on the Constitution.
“Now that Trump’s back in office, he’s elected special government employee Elon Musk to dig around in things that Congress never authorized and he’s looking at data, sensitive information, Social Security numbers, Treasury information, and I understand it’s all under the ruse of cutting government costs, but obviously, nobody from Congress, no congressional committee or congressional body authorized this, so it circumvents any of the checks and balances.
“Obviously I have other concerns, such as for my LGBTQ+ plus allies, I know trans people and I’m afraid for their rights. I’m married, and even though I don’t have daughters, I’m afraid for the rights of all the women in this country.”
Concerning immigrants, the veteran noted, “I served with people in the military who joined the military as a means of becoming US citizens. And that’s not a route that everybody can take…” He added that “something needed to be done” to make “migrant workers legal in some sense...instead of being the servant who is under the table, basically, like figuratively, in some cases literally.”
He concluded, “Immigrants are an easy scapegoat when you have people like Elon Musk, who are sitting on top of $406 billion in cash, liquid assets, stock options, etc. when a lot of American citizens can barely scrape to get by.”
A college student told the WSWS, “My mom’s family is originally from Japan. We’ve been here since 1905. Both of my grandparents lived in interment camps. My grandfather, he grew up in the Arizona camps and actually my family and I visited Wyoming where my grandmother was interned from the ages, of I think 11 to like 17 or so.
“And all I’ve been able to think about since Trump’s been inaugurated is, ‘it’s going to happen again, isn’t it?’”
The student added, “I don’t think any person is illegal to begin with, but this is not going to stop at ‘illegal’ immigrants. The United States government has no problem relocating legal US citizens.
“The Trump administration has absolutely no problem with disobeying what is directly written in the Constitution. Like, if they can get away with this they can get away with absolutely anything they want. So the line has to be drawn somewhere and it’s right here, it’s right now.”
He concluded, “A lot of people are confused as to how they can actually make any meaningful change. So that’s kind of why I wanted to get out of my [social] circle. I came here alone. I would say that I fell into a bit of a complacency with the Biden administration. I thought everything was going to be OK, and that we had all moved on from this. That was very much wrong and I regret ever thinking that way.”
A working college student denounced Trump’s “takeover of the government and how he’s allowing Elon Musk to get his grubby little paws on the Treasury and allowing him to run wild and amok.”
“I don’t think it’s right,” he added. “I think it’s time for us to really open our eyes and show people exactly what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing, especially with the mass deportations and with them trying to end birthright citizenship, along with abortion.”
“Regardless of what country you are from, the working class is still the working class,” he said, adding, “I don’t see why there would be an issue uniting the working class internationally. I don’t see any issues with that.”