Thousands of San Francisco students, teachers and community members gathered at Mission Dolores Park yesterday as part of coast-to-coast walkouts, expressing their anger with President Donald Trump and the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The nationwide protests were in response to increased ICE deployments in Minnesota after false allegations that the state was fraudulently funneling funds to Somali-owned daycares. The federal raids led to state-wide unrest, furthered by the killings of two U.S. citizens.
Born in Colorado, Good was a poet and mother of three who moved to Minnesota last year. After attempting to drive her car away from an ICE officer during a raid in Minneapolis, Good was shot three times. Federal officers on scene denied observers access to render medical aid and state authorities access to investigate the crime scene following the killing.
Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse who was murdered by federal agents for having a concealed weapon on his body. Federal agents claim to have acted in self-defense according to the BBC, but video of the altercation shows that ICE obtained Pretti’s weapon before the shooting. Pretti had a concealed weapon permit issued by the state of Minnesota.
“Countless immigrants have been murdered in the so-called ‘detention centers’ that ICE has,” said San Francisco State University student Brian Yan. “I don’t believe that the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti were any different from the murders of these immigrants, because at the end of the day, this is what ICE is going to do.”
SFSU’s Student Union came together to voice solidarity with the immigrant community. Yan, a member of the Student Union’s leadership group, believes that the only remedy for the pain many students are feeling is to abolish ICE completely.
“ICE has intensified its attacks against immigrants all across the country, as well as people in solidarity with the immigrant community,” Yan said. “They’ve been escalating their attacks beyond just immigrants now; journalists are being arrested. People are being executed in the streets by ICE. Frankly, the only solution for us students is for ICE to be abolished.”
Labor organizers were also in attendance, including Iowa native Cecilia Hodson, a local United Auto Workers union member and an SFSU biology graduate student. Hodson has seen the polarization of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and immigration enforcement in her own family. Some of her relatives take to the streets and organize, while others still believe in the administration’s claims.
“My family is kind of split, I have some family members that are really heavily embedded in the Trump propaganda and it’s difficult to talk to them, but I do also have family members that are mortified by what’s going on,” Hodson said. “In Iowa, it isn’t as organized as it is in Minnesota or here in San Francisco.”
Local students held walkouts from their schools and flocked to the park with signs and chants of anti-ICE sentiment. 14-year-old George Washington High School student Emmett Bouldt shared that he could no longer idly stand by waiting for his fear of losing loved ones to become reality.
“That fear is definitely there, because I have Mexican friends and I would never want something bad to happen to them,” Boudt said. “I would never want anything to happen to my friends and family that I really care about. So if ICE ever came here, I would be really scared for everybody that I care about.”
Political organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America say that young Americans no longer need aid in recognizing America’s issues, but rather aid to solve them.
“[Young adults] don’t need persuading, they see what’s happening on the streets, they have a consciousness,” said Jefferson Lee, a DSA San Francisco chapter member. “I think our role is to help support them, to provide them with resources to try and give them lessons from the organizing that we’ve done, the mistakes that we’ve made, the wins that we’ve had. We need to empower them to lead, because I already think they’re in a position to.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation mobilized against ICE’s attacks on American civilians and the dehumanization of immigrants.
“We do not need [ICE] in our streets. We can protect ourselves. Immigrants are welcomed here,” said Mary Cook, a PSL member. “They built this country, and they deserve to be here and do not deserve to be tormented and terrorized.”
Event organizers directed protesters to march on City Hall. A united front paced itself with communal cohesion and a tangible anger.
Labor organizers like Jacob Machnik of Teamsters Amazon demanded more from the public, stating that a one-day general strike won’t make a dent in the pockets of the wealthy.
“What we need is a real general strike, one that is not a one-day, use a sick day, symbolic, take it to the streets only if your boss will let you,” Machnik said. “We need a real general strike, one that is led by workers, by rank and file members of unions. And we need to do that whether or not we have permission from our bosses or from politicians. We make our own permission.”
With the congressional midterms approaching in the fall, educational specialist Kathy Shepherd holds doubts about the government, feeling that Democratic lawmakers are falling short of their constituents’ demands.
“[Democrats] need to be doing something to check [Donald Trump’s] power. We’re supposed to be three branches of government,” Shepherd said. “Like what the hell, right? It’s just not right. Something is wrong. Something is broken.”
With rising tensions from ICE agents’ violence and no clear support of a true opposition party, Machnik advises that the only path to achieving their goals of peace is through worker solidarity.
“It’s going to take us organizing ourselves first as a working class, and organizing ourselves militantly with a mindset that we have to struggle for everything that we win,” Machnik said. “We have to organize with a mentality that we’re going to keep ourselves independent from all capitalist parties that only keep the workers held down.”
As uncertainty grows around whether the administration will change its policy on immigration enforcement, San Francisco’s community remains hopeful.
“I really hope that there is [change], I’m not that confident, but I hope,” Bouldt said. “I have a lot of hope, and that’s what I’m living with.”
Editor’s Note: The story was updated to correct the spelling of Pretti’s last name.
