On Friday, protestors against President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown climbed through a foot of snow while holding resistance signs in their gloved hands to reach the Miami University seal, located in Academic Quad. These demonstrators demanded for ICE to leave Ohio and had the goal of standing in solidarity with protestors in Minneapolis following the recent fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“It is currently a lovely 17 degrees in Oxford, feels like 12,” said Kali Barcroft, a sophomore political science major and protest organizer with the Ohio Student Association (OSA). “Snow up to our knees. Jeans covered in snow. I can't feel my fingers. I can barely feel my face, but we have got to have a good 100-200 students coming through today”
Barcroft said that students persevered through the weather “in solidarity and collaboration with schools across the nation as a part of a bigger movement called Students Rise Up.”
Numerous protesters from the College Democrats, OSA and Young Democratic Socialists of America said ICE sightings have inched closer to the university. Leadership of these organizations challenged the university to take a stance on the issue. Anna Sergio, sophomore public administration major and vice president of the College Democrats said she wants international students and immigrant communities to feel safe on campus in light of ICE in Ohio.
“There has been a surge of ICE agents in Butler County, specifically Springfield and Fairfield,” Sergio said. “They are getting very close. We want these communities to feel protected and served by the university. Love unites and hate divides. All these people are uniting for the love of supporting immigrant communities.”
As the rally unfolded, it included various student and faculty speakers, a distribution of flyers and stickers, lines marching around the academic quad and organized chants such as, “No justice, no peace. We the students run these streets.”
Protesters holding signs and chanting walk through the snow-covered Academic Quad.
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One of the speakers, Skylar Stapleton, a junior arts management and entrepreneurship major, said he needed to be at the protest because he felt it was his civic duty to show support. He then urged others to look out for and to protect their neighbors.
“[I’m attending] mainly because of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and also because of the other violence ICE has committed against immigrants and citizens of this country, specifically without due process,” Stapleton said. “They are an unchecked force that is not being held accountable by the courts as of right now.”
The protest was met with several religious responses and supporters. Roughly 45 minutes into the protest, Dean Craddock, a sophomore quantitative economics major involved with Cru Campus Ministry, decided to stand on a bench and declare a message about injustice and faith.
“I don’t think this is a partisan issue, I think it’s a sin issue,” Craddock said to The Miami Student. “I fight [injustice] not because I am a certain party, but because of God’s word.”
Later, Reverend Julie Fisher, priest at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and campus minister, joined in on the protest accompanied by her husband Reverend Kip Colegrave, a retired priest at the parish. The couple shared their support for the protest’s message.
“Both of us are extremely strong supporters of what is going on with the people’s response in Minneapolis,” she said “We want to show that the church is here, supporting this message. It says over and over again in scripture that we’re supposed to welcome the foreigner and the immigrant and treat them exactly equal to us. Love your neighbor.”
Along with religious and grassroot attendees, the protest was magnified by students on bikes and crutches, passer-bys joining in, various press reporters, faculty members and townies. It remained peaceful and has not been met with an official university response.
In the aftermath of the demonstration, Miami was left with various signs sticking out of the snow in the Academic Quad and a lingering request for response.
“We are here because we share concerns; We are concerned for the safety of members of our community,” Rachel Makarowski, special collections librarian, said to the crowd. “We the people do not agree with this. We the people believe that every person deserves to be treated with dignity. We the people do not just ask, but demand that Miami ‘ice-out’ ICE. Together united we will never be defeated.”
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