This article received the Best of SNO award on Feb. 3, 2026. You can view in on the Best of SNO website here.
“No justice, no peace, no ICE in our streets,” a gathering of students and other protesters chanted on Friday, Jan. 30 at 11:05 a.m. in the area around Redwood City’s Superior Court. Just a few hours earlier at 9:24 a.m., students were in the Woodside High School quad preparing to walk out of school in protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the recent events in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The protest was organized by the group Banderas Unidas, which is made up of four Woodside students. The protest coincided with a “Nationwide General Strike” called for by student groups at the University of Minnesota. This “blackout” called for “No work. No school. No shopping.” Woodside senior Kathy Morales helped organize the protest, which she said took months of preparation and coordination with students at other nearby schools.
“Originally, we were supposed to [walk out] next week and then Aragon High School, San Mateo High School and Hillsdale actually reached out to us and they asked for a collaboration because, as we were already aware of, [Jan. 30] is going to be a very big day all over the nation,” Morales said. “People are going to do strikes, there’s gonna be walkouts and I think with greater numbers, that’s where the impact comes.”
As Woodside students walked towards Redwood City, passing cars honked in support as students held up signs and cheered. Organizers kept people on the sidewalk and directed the crowd safely through crosswalks, making sure the protest did not excessively interfere with traffic.
“I decided to join the walkout because I have a lot of friends and family who are immigrants,” Woodside freshman Oscar Ortiz said. “Why not? The United States was supposed to be a dream [but] I don’t see it. So I have to stand for my people and support them no matter what.”
A few days earlier, Woodside principal Karen van Putten sent out a message to Woodside families with information and reminders about student protests, including a reminder that students are allowed one absence per year for engaging in a “civic or political event” under California law. The message emphasized how the school legally has to stay neutral. She also encouraged students to be safe and know the risks now that public demonstrations are no longer considered “protected sites”.
“The fact that kids have to skip their lessons to teach the adults one is actually kind of crazy for us,” Woodside freshman Dania Rodriguez said.
At 11:42 a.m., students from Menlo-Atherton High School and the private high school Menlo School arrived at Redwood City’s Superior Court and joined the crowd. Around the same time, students from other schools, including Kennedy Middle School, also joined. Students from Sequoia High School were expected to arrive by this point, but Sequoia had been placed under secure campus due to a reported bomb threat in Downtown Redwood City later confirmed not credible by local police.
“I decided to come out [to the protest] because I have a lot of family in Minneapolis,” Menlo-Atherton student Lucas Carrea said. “I just came from Iowa, I’m new here. I really think it’s a whole other world out there because there’s ICE agents everywhere. It’s one thing to hear about it on the news, but it’s a whole other thing to actually see them at kids’ bus stops. It’s really enraging and I think we [have to] spread the word around the country because it’s gonna come to us eventually.”
Protest signs included many anti-ICE and anti-Trump messages, such as “Stay salty, melt ICE,” “This isn’t about politics, it’s about humanity,” and “Immigrants are not criminals but the president is.”
“My sign says ‘Trump has a mugshot, my parents don’t,’” Rodriguez said. “If they say they’re gonna deport all criminals, why are they deporting innocent people? Trump himself is a criminal, but somehow he’s president and it’s just extremely unfair.”
Other protests in Minneapolis and across the U.S. happened this Friday, including other student protests and walkouts. There was a similar walkout at Woodside and other schools last year, also organized by Banderas Unidas, protesting Trump’s immigration policies.
“They talk about criminals and they talk about making America great again and then they go and they kill innocent people and they get away with it,” Morales said. “At first it was about immigrant rights. Now, it’s something way bigger than all of us. It’s no longer immigrant rights, it’s human rights.”
