“We’re all here to say one thing, and that’s fuck ICE. We want them out of our communities,” Ryan Sutthoff-Peña ’26 told the Register Forum. He stood among a mass of his fellow students in a packed Red Line car, some chanting into megaphones, others sporting protest signs held high above their backpacks.
At 2:00 p.m. on January 30th, hundreds of CRLS students walked out of their classes and joined a nationwide response to the recent surge of immigration enforcement and the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Fortified by the 16° chill and flanked on either side by snow mounds, organizers Sutthoff-Peña; Abigail Wossen ’28; and Frida Ulm ’28 led students from the Cambridge Public Library to Copley Square, where they joined thousands of other protestors. The walkout was one of over 300 coordinated “ICE Out” demonstrations across the country, demanding the withdrawal of federal agents from municipal streets.
For many, the movement is personal. “I am Venezuelan-American,” Sutthoff-Peña told the RF. “[and] that part of my identity is near and dear to me.” He went on to recount his family’s concerns: “My own grandmother told me to carry my passport everywhere. I’ve got my passport in my backpack right now.” He believes that local and state leadership have not gone far enough, and that students must organize to protect themselves and their peers regardless of their background. In a community with a diverse immigrant population, organizing is both powerful and dangerous—a dilemma many students have grappled with.
While Cambridge has historically been a sanctuary city, the recent violence cast on residents and protestors in Minneapolis, and the supra-judiciary actions of the Trump administration, have stirred uncertainty among residents. Wossen, a child of Ethiopian immigrants, addressed the climate within CRLS, noting to the RF that, while many are motivated, “everyone can be nervous.” By contrast, Principal Allan Gately Gehant expressed confidence in state guidance, saying, “[ICE] can’t come in regardless [of whether they have a warrant] … I trust in the Attorney General to give us a good plan.” At a time when standard policies and procedures are blatantly disregarded and dissenters are met with violence, many students feel that policy doesn’t ensure protection. Zahara Smith ’26 told the RF, “I feel like [ICE] is showing us that nobody is safe… White men have been killed. Black men have been killed. College students have been abducted, and so have 5-year-olds. So at this point, it’s anybody’s game.”
In front of the Cambridge Public Library, Wossen delivered a critique of the current immigration enforcement system to the growing crowd: “ICE does not enforce immigration law, it enforces fear.” As the gathering filled out onto the streets, the atmosphere of frustration dissipated, while a growing sense of joy and empowerment took its place. Wossen, Suttoff-Peña, and Ulm led the protestors in a chant: “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!”
This article also appears in our February 2026 print edition.
