About 50 Fayetteville college students walked out of classrooms and gathered outside City Hall on Friday, holding handmade signs and chanting as part of a nationwide protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The rally came amid a wave of protests across the U.S. following the recent killings of two people by ICE agents in Minneapolis and immigration enforcement actions in other cities.
Student organizers said the demonstrations were held in solidarity with victims including Alex Pretti and Renée Good, whose deaths have drawn renewed scrutiny of federal immigration operations.
Locally, the walkout was organized by student leaders from Fayetteville Technical Community College and Methodist University, including Joshua Reed of FTCC and Lathan Wardworth of Methodist University.
“We’re doing this to stand in solidarity with Somali and Black student organizers who made the call for a nationwide shutdown and for students to walk out and show just how much power we have as a collective student body,” Reed said.
Reed said an earlier plan to hold a morning walkout on FTCC’s campus was not approved by administrators, which he said led to pushback during the organizing process.
“There were some policies we didn’t know about, and we probably could have done some things better,” Reed said. “But there was also a lot of passive aggressiveness. Not direct threats, but I definitely felt fear.”
Wardworth, a freshman at Methodist University, said the protest reflected growing concern about immigration enforcement and a broader shift in how students view government power.
“There’s been a gradual shift in how people view what the government can get away with,” Wardworth said. “A lot of people are scared of ICE. That fear is part of why people are coming out.”
‘Enough Is Enough’
Other students who attended the rally said they felt compelled to participate.
“In a lot of ways, I have to be here,” said Marc Baker, a junior at Fayetteville State University studying psychology. “Seeing people killed, seeing families torn apart—it gets to a point where you almost have to stand up if you care about human rights.”
Fin Perry, a senior industrial engineering student at Methodist University, said she felt a moral obligation to attend the rally.
“Enough is enough. We’re here to protest that,” Perry said.
“Every human life is a life, and you can’t give that life back once it’s taken away,” Perry said. “If you consider yourself someone who cares about human rights, you almost have to be out here.”
By early afternoon, a crowd of students and community members gathered outside City Hall holding a variety of handmade signs and posters.
Demonstrators stood bundled against the cold, holding messages such as one reading “I hate the cold, but I hate ICE more,” another that declared “Power to the people—No one is illegal,” and a sign stating “Immigrants make America great.”
Some participants carried brightly colored placards opposing immigration enforcement, while others held signs calling for systemic change, including messages reading “No ICE” and “Impeach.”
Cars honked in support as students chanted along Hay Street.
Reed said he hopes the rally encourages students to become more involved in organizing beyond a single day.
“True, sustainable change is only going to come when people organize and rally together,” Reed said. “No one individual is going to stop everything that’s happening.”
On January 8, about 50 people gathered outside City Hall to protest the fatal shooting of Good in Minneapolis. On January 4, a protest against the American military incursion into Venezuela drew over 30 people near the Bragg Boulevard Flea Market.
