The refrain resonated through the streets as Mills and Capuchino High School students marched down El Camino Real on Jan. 30, 2026, participating in a student-led walkout protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the midst of the ongoing ICE raids, the walkout is a primary example of what the Bay Area has been doing to support immigrants.

The Jan. 30 walkout was just one of many protests organized recently against the Trump administration. One of the most significant of these was the nationwide Free America Walkout on Jan. 20, 2026, exactly a year after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, with over 47,000 people participating.

“We demand an end to the kidnappings by ICE, investigations into and full accountability for the extra judicial killings of immigrants and US citizens,” the walkout’s website states in a list of demands the protest is making.

Organized by Women’s March, a group that also orchestrated a large-scale protest during President Trump’s first term, the walkout was prompted largely by the shooting of Renee Good, a US citizen, by ICE officials in Minnesota.

Marvin Loong, a freshman content creator at Mills, attended the protest to report on it. In order to accurately document it without bias, Loong did not participate in the protest.

“If I was part of that crowd, I think I’d feel a strong sense of solidarity … where the group is more important than the individual,” Loong says. “And I think that people in the protest would feel very strongly … to yell at the top of their lungs to make their voice heard.”

According to Chloe Dillon, Head of Criminal Immigration Defense at the San Mateo County Private Defender Program, the protests highlighted the rising tensions due to the increase in ICE activity all over the nation.

“I think it is really significant that we’re seeing protests against ICE in major cities across the United States, because those kinds of protests were not that common … even during [President Trump’s first term],” Dillon says. “A lot of that [probably] has to do with the fact that people are seeing … ICE enforcement and arrest and even brutality in their own communities, whereas during [the first term], everything that was happening was … on the border.”

With over 15 million in the United States, high schoolers hold a lot of strength in numbers. Involvement can start through education, staying aware and informed about current events, uniting in solidarity and speaking out about one’s beliefs – and Mills students did exactly this.

At the walkout on Jan. 30, the streets of Millbrae were filled with students chanting, waving signs and speaking their minds in peaceful protest. The walkout lasted over two hours, fueled by onlookers cheering and drivers honking in encouragement as the students walked by. The San Mateo Police Department blocked off traffic to ensure that protesters remain safe while exercising their First Amendment rights.

One of these students, Alanna Germain (10), shares how she feels to be able to advocate for change alongside her peers.

“I feel very unified and very together [with the people here], and also very proud that we [go to] a school [where] so many people come and support this, and [we live] in a community where so many people are supporting,” says Germain. “It’s really special.”

High school protests like these are one way for students to start speaking out and making changes in the world.

“I think that we’re at a point in our country’s history, where we have to decide what we want our future to look like,” Dillon says. “And you’re never too young to be involved in that process and to start thinking about what kind of a society you want to live in.”