Hundreds of students across Bay Area walk out of school to protest ICE

Jakob Rodgers and Caelyn Pender, Bay Area News Group on Jan 28, 2026

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Hundreds of students across the Bay Area walked out of their classes Wednesday to protest the recent killings of two people in Minneapolis by federal agents and President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.

The local walkouts — which included a march through the streets of downtown San Jose, along with other walkouts near San Leandro — added to a growing number of protests across the nation following the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents over the weekend in Minneapolis. The killing came just weeks after another federal agent fatally shot a mother of three, Renee Good, in the same city.

Holding signs reading “No one is illegal on stolen land” and “ICE melts in California,” hundreds of Overfelt High School students in San Jose walked out of school Wednesday afternoon, many of them chanting “No ICE! No wall! Free the families, free them all.”

Nearby residents stood outside the front of their homes in shows of support as the walkout proceeded to the intersection of King and Story on San Jose’s east side, with drummers accompanying them. Some attendees waved American or Mexican flags.

Footage from ABC7’s helicopter also showed hundreds of students staging a walkout on Hesperian Boulevard in San Leandro.

Keyontae Slayton, a 16-year-old Overfelt student, railed against the tactics used by ICE of late, and decried the shooting of Pretti over the weekend.

“What’s happening with ICE right now is not right at all,” Slayton said. “It really is truly, really bad that people are actually accepting this and thinking this is right.”

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