Los Alamos High School students begin to pour into Ashley Pond Park Friday afternoon during their Anti-ICE Walkout. The event was not sanctioned by Los Alamos Public Schools. Students marched from LAHS along Central Avenue to Ashley Pond. They later stood along Trinity Drive waving their signs for passing traffic. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Abel Sayre, one of the organizers of Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout speaks at Ashley Pond Pavilion. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Student speakers gather at the Ashley Pond Pavilion Friday afternoon where they were joined by Christa of Los Alamos Indivisible. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Students gather with their signs on the sidewalk along Trinity Drive Friday afternoon. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Scene from Friday’s Anti-ICE Walkout Friday afternoon at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Abel Sayre:
Good afternoon everybody, thank you for coming out today. My name is Abel Sayre, I am a sophomore at Los Alamos High School, and one of a couple organizers. I would like to first thank everybody at the Los Alamos Indivisible Group, Reverend Tina and the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, Samizdat bookstore, Anna, Sal, Charles, everyone else who helped organize and spread the word, and I would like to thank all of you, students and people of the community, for showing up for us today.
We are here today to stand up against the atrocities committed by ICE in Minnesota and country-wide, to protest ICE facilities here in New Mexico, and to show that the younger generation cares about these issues and we are willing to stand up against them.
All of you here have seen what has been happening in Minneapolis recently. Kids are being detained and used as bait, people are being brutally beaten and murdered in broad daylight, and people are being taken off the street and sent to detention centers where they continue to be abused.
However, many of you might not know that New Mexico is home to 3 ICE detention centers, in Otero, Cibola, and Torrance counties. ICE has been sending immigrants taken from Minnesota to Torrance County Detention Center, a trip that forces them to stay awake for more than 24 hours. Removing people from their home state removes them from legal help, and cuts them off from family support. Right now there is a bill in our legislature, the Immigrant Safety Act, that just made it to the House Floor, which would make it illegal in New Mexico for counties to contract with ICE. So I urge you all to contact your representatives, and tell them to vote to pass House Bill 9.
To people who are saying that we should be in school getting an education right now. You know who isn’t in school getting an education right now? Liam Ramos, the five year old boy in the cute blue bunny hat that was taken from his driveway by ICE ten days ago. To the people saying that we don’t need to care or think about politics yet because we are too young. Well you can’t think about politics if you are shot in the face through your car window by an ice agent. Or when you are brutally murdered by the reckless guns of the lawless, secret ice agents that roam the streets. Or if you’re beaten to death in an ICE detention center. Or if you die in ICE custody because they refuse to administer you medical help.
I’d like to close by reading the names of the people who we know have been killed by ICE just in the past 30 days: Rest in peace:
Alex Pretti
Renee Good
Keith Porter
Geraldo Lunas Campos
Victor Manuel Diaz
Parady La
Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
Heber Sanchez Dominguez
Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
To all the other unreported deaths at the hands of ICE, to the people who have been illegally detained and are missing, we say: Fuck Donald Trump. Abolish ICE, stay angry, keep fighting, thank you.
Anna Gattis:
Hello everyone, and thank you so much for sacrificing a few hours of your education to support this cause. My name is Anna Gattis, and I am a sophomore at LAHS. While me and a few others were coordinating this protest, I had a student reach out to me. He said, “What’s the point? What difference does one little town in New Mexico make?”
These words showed me why many people our age seem apathetic. If you aren’t sure of it now, let me make it clear: small acts of resistance on a mass scale do not go unnoticed. Standing here, my words are fueled by the innocent lives lost due to ICE. They are fueled by my grandparents, who came from Mexico envisioning a nation where their children could thrive, and most of all, they are fueled by me. My passion is fueled by the most human part of me whose heart aches watching others suffer.
Though we are here partly to mourn and show our anger, I know those emotions stem from a sense of community. I was promised an America where we wept for one another, laughed with one another, and showed solidarity. In a world too often ruled by hate, I see a glimpse of the country I was promised here today. Seeing this many students from a small New Mexico town come together gives me hope. (pause)
While we stand here to mourn those murdered in broad daylight, I would also like to shed some light on what is happening behind closed doors. The ACLU as well as many other human rights organizations have reported on the inhumane conditions in ICE detention centers. One victim of this treatment was a man by the name of Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died in custody at Camp East Montana in El Paso. His death was ruled a homicide, as he was strangled to death by an ICE officer during an altercation. Geraldo is not the only one. In ICE detainment centers, there have been several reports of unlawful use of force, sexual abuse, and inadequate access to medical care and food. In April 2025, a family with children ages 2, 4, and 7 was deported. The 4 year old was suffering from a rare form of metastatic cancer, and was deported without medication or communication to their physicians.
This is not something temporary. The current administration will continue this abuse of power as long as they are permitted to, which is why we must continue fighting. Do not stop saying their names. Do not stop standing up. Do not stop resisting. I know how easy it is to feel small compared to everything happening around us, but I hope this demonstration today will change some minds, and make people realize that this small town knows how to stand up.
I would like to end this with a quote by Frida Kahlo. “Al final del día, podemos aguantar mucho más de lo que pensamos que podemos.” At the end of the day, we can take much more than we think we can. Thank you, Los Alamos.
Sal DeWitt:
Before I begin I hand over the spotlight to the bright minded Charles Austin for first proposing this idea to me, and I cannot forget to thank Abel Sayre, Anna Gattis, and the great Lin Wolf for getting this protest to the point it’s gotten to. And for our speech and debaters who could not make it here with us, I represent your advocacy today.
On January 7th 2026, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Jonathan Ross, fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis as she tried to leave a chaotic enforcement operation.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled her death as a homicide, just weeks later Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse was killed in the same city. Federal officials have defended the actions of both ICE agents as “self-defense.” Yet the case has not been ushered through the judicial process as reports show Ross knew Good’s car was moving unpredictably.
At what point do we stop calling this a coincidence?
At what point do we call it what it is?
When force is used before accountability, when investigations are delayed, that is the erosion of liberty. That is the definition of tyranny.
We are the new era of young adults entering the voting force, and today we give Los Alamos the voice to say WE DISAGREE with these fascist schemes.
Immigrants built our country, laid its foundations, strengthened its labor, and expanded ambition. We were designed around a limited government that protects our individual liberty, but living in this quiet town makes it easy to drown out the warnings about fearful inevitabilities.
This soon to be genocide keeps picking at my mind while others weep. We have not seen the full extent of their raids, or the violence pursued in other states, but our LANL reputation doesn’t keep us immune with ICE operating in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Roswell.
As I dwell on the past I see how our generation hasn’t lived through the worst moments of history, but we learned them, and what did history teach? Atrocities do not appear all at once, they appear through silenced normalization, leading to justification, and people convincing themselves “Oh that won’t happen to me”.
How many deaths will it take for our country to come down?
What will happen when it’s one of our blood?
On the news for being shot, reduced to a headline of certain unjust, for this one life to be remembered as someone who got caught?
If we don’t stop now America will no longer be America and the nazi’s will be proud.
Our natives are being targeted, and falsely accused, as our privacies become more invaded to ensure truth.. 1984, the imagined world where fear keeps people obedient looks more like a reality now. What’s next? Instating an actual ministry of truth, or making us all go poof?
George Orwell wasn’t making a guidebook, and this isn’t just politics now. It’s a warning for those trying to live their truth, wishing for a better life, only to be mistaken as a flook. Racism doesn’t have to be displayed grandly, it’s deceptive, and secretive, and only to live inside the minds who exhibit it.
Patriotism has been reduced to symbols stripped of substance. It isn’t a flag on a truck or a slogan on a hat. To be a true patriot is to exercise the rights to assembly, speech, and press and to fight for your neighbors. Those before us didn’t risk everything so we could be obedient; they did it so we could be loud. People come across the world for a chance to live the American dream, and that dream is not dead, not as long as we are here. So we stand here today remembering this: they may fight with fear and force, but we fight with facts, community, and remorse.
Not every mind will be changed, but every voice raised makes silence harder to justify.
Aaron Cisneros:
Before I start, I just want to say thank you to the organizers of this protest that were willing to let me speak up here, and thank you to everyone standing here today willing to speak up and fight against the injustice and murder against innocent American citizens.
Back in 1955, my grandfather was born in the Latin-American city of Nicaragua. 5 years later, he was adopted and brought here to the United States. His adopted parents had hope that he would live a better life in America. That he would be safe, even if he was a darker skinned, Latino man. Even though he faced lots of racism and hardship through his earlier years, he still stood strong and lived to be the strong, amazing man I know him to be. It sickens me to think that a government funded, law enforcement group could strip him away from me, my brother, and my mother. It sickens me that they can send him to another country on his own, that they could beat him, shoot him, do whatever they wish to him in the name of “justice” and “saving America from illegal aliens” all because he’s a Hispanic man who was born outside of the US. The worst part is, this isn’t an exaggeration. It’s all happening right in front of us to multiple families across the United States. Do you know how many videos I’ve seen of people showing children’s reactions to their parents being deported by ICE? Seeing them cry and struggle to breathe because of how scared they are? It’s absolutely sickening.
You’ll see ICE supporters scream about protecting the children and helping the children, but then they’ll sit on their asses and laugh at children having their families forcefully ripped from them. They don’t care, they’ve never cared, and neither does our government. Our president is in full support of ripping families apart, murdering people on the streets, and causing absolute bloodshed for his fascist agenda. To keep us all under his boot. Well, I’m not gonna follow his bullshit, and neither should anyone else. This isn’t normal. This isn’t for the greater good. It’s murder and torture against innocent citizens orchestrated by the government. Don’t be silent. Don’t be complacent. Scream at the top of your lungs! March the streets! Spread awareness everywhere you can! The louder we are, the more likely change will come.
Sean Welsh:
If you are black, white, man, woman, gay, trans, old or young- as long as you are on this soil you are an American, and nothing will take that away from you. Yesterday the United States was attacked by its greatest adversary yet: injustice and prejudice, and despite our countries moto; despite our countries core, its voice has been ripped and manipulated to the will of this aggressor.
Donald Trump and the maga republic have tarnished the meaning of patriotism; it is not to blindly follow orders under the name of your country, no! Patriotism is to question the orders of your country, to ask why, and when asked to fight, fight on the front of injustice! Fight for the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of freedom!
When your great grandmothers and grandfathers faced injustice from the great British empire, Americans fought for their freedom!
When the rebels fought for slavery, it was American patriots who fought for their freedom! When the Nazis kidnapped and executed millions of Jews, it was Americans who pushed bravely and fought for their freedom!
When our own government segregated and oppressed its own people solely on the prejudice of the color of their skin, it was your grandparents who marched for their freedom!
And now that our ideals and rights of life are being threatened by a domestic emperor, I know that you too will take up arms, and you too, will fight for your freedom!
Anya Seet:
I don’t know about you all, but I will take whatever punishment the high school admin gives us with pride.
Because that punishment means that we can stand up to authority when authority tells us to keep quiet and let the injustice happen.
Genocides don’t start with mass murders and concentration camps. They start with a slow spread of hatred towards a group across a nation. They start with people who sit by and do nothing when injustices happened. Don’t ever let authority stop you from acts of kindness and love toward the people this government wants to scapegoat on.
We will protect our friends, our neighbors, our families from ICE. We will show immigrants basic human kindness simply because they are human. Not illegal aliens. Humans.
We cannot let hate become our status quo.
We have to disrupt. We have to make ourselves a problem for the government or nothing will change.
When hate becomes the norm, kindness is our last act of rebellion.