Mpls. Students Stage Walkout Over ICE Raids, Deportations

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Hundreds of students in Minneapolis staged a walkout Wednesday to protest raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials that threaten to split up families.

The demonstration started at noon, with students from several schools walking to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park on the city's south side. From there, the students walked up Nicollet Avenue and blocked the intersection at Lake Street, photos on social media show.

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The planned protests come as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, prepares an operation that would deport hundreds of families that have recently entered the country after fleeing violence in Central America.

The organizers of Wednesday's protest say that raids to round up immigrants are happening in public and potentially at schools.

"As youth, we want to do this walkout in solidarity with the people who are too afraid of leaving their homes in fear of having their family split up," a Facebook event for the protest states. "This affects a numerous amount of high school students due to the fact that a lot of us have mix status families."

The protest in Minneapolis coincides with other demonstrations across the country.