"Immigrants are just as human as anyone else is," said Allister Lucero, a freshman at Alameda International. "We deserve to be here. We work, we pay taxes. We're just like any other citizen."
Lucero and her friend and fellow freshman Valeria Márquez organized the walkout by creating an Instagram account and following a couple of hundred students from Alameda International, a Jefferson County School District campus with more than 1,000 middle and high schoolers. Staff present at the demonstration estimated about 300 students were at the event.
"They're rallying behind the fact that this is their lives," Lucero added. "This affects them, too. This affects their families."
After Trump took office a month ago, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, ended a 2021 policy that created "protected areas" where ICE can't make arrests, including churches, hospitals and schools. The Lakewood walkout comes a week after Denver Public Schools filed a lawsuit against DHS on February 12 to keep those areas in protected.
Denver and Aurora schools have reported a dip in attendance since Trump was inaugurated, especially after a series of raids on February 5 at several metro apartment complexes, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Nearly 800 students at Alameda International are Hispanic or Latino, according to the Colorado Department of Education. News about ICE raids and deportations "greatly impacts our community," Márquez said. "We really wanted to come out here to show our support to our fellow students."
Minerva Mendoza Reyna, a junior at Alameda International, walked out with her classmates because her mother was deported when she was in fourth grade. "It was a really difficult experience to not have my mom by my side, and to know that she was taken away from me at such a young age," Mendoza Reyna recalled. "My dad was over here by himself. He was working to support all of us."
Minerva Mendoza Reyna, a junior at Alameda International, walked out with her classmates because her mother was deported when she was in fourth grade. "It was a really difficult experience to not have my mom by my side, and to know that she was taken away from me at such a young age," Mendoza Reyna recalled. "My dad was over here by himself. He was working to support all of us."
Mendoza Reyna's family was eventually reunited, but since Trump took office, "I live with that fear that they're going to be taken away. They're both only residents," she said, referring to their immigration status as legal permanent residents but not citizens. Residents, like visa or green card holders, can still be deported if they commit crimes or leave the country for an extended period, according to the Department of Justice and DHS.
"I'm far more blessed than a lot of these other students, whose parents and they themselves don't have that privilege to be residents, at the very least," Mendoza Reyna explained. "It's still really terrifying to think I can have everything taken away from me at any day."
Sophomore Kaylee Luna said she walked out in support of her classmates and her parents, who are Mexican immigrants. For Luna, Trump's deportations seem "unfair" because she believes most immigrants are hard workers like her parents.
"They work every day to get me what I need — food, clothes — they're just working hard, and there's a lot of families out there who still don't have permission to be here but still pay taxes. They're here just trying to get a better life," Luna said. "That's why I'm here, to support people not being taken from their lives."
There's been a large turnout at protests against Trump and ICE at the Colorado State Capitol this month, most in solidarity with nationwide protests following the same causes. The Fifty State Protest in Denver on February 5 saw a strong showing of Mexican pride, with many protesters waving the country's flag and playing traditional and popular Mexican music.
Alameda International's walkout had a similar vibe, with students like Luna and Mendoza Reyna holding up Mexican flags towards cars passing on South Wadsworth Boulevard, and other students playing regional Mexican music genres like banda and norteña.
"I'm extremely proud of where I come from, super proud," Mendoza Reyna said. "I would be Mexican in every lifetime. I wouldn't change it for a thing."
