The Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity at Penn State staged an anti-ICE protest Thursday night at the University Park campus. Joined by multiple other community and student groups, the demonstration marched from the Allen Street gates to the Nittany Lion Inn, where the Penn State Board of Trustees was lodging for their meetings on Thursday and Friday.
The protest came about three weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested two dozen men in Centre County while they were on their way to work at a Mount Nittany Medical Center construction project. In the spring, meanwhile, at least 22 international students also had their visas abruptly revoked as part of a nationwide action by the Trump administration that was later reversed for many.
Organizers wrote in an Instagram post that they demanded that Penn State “refuse to collaborate with ICE and refuse to allow ICE, or any other antisocial agency, to recruit on our campus.” The demonstration was timed so that university leadership “hears us loud and clear,” according to the post.
“While some rank and file members of Penn State staff and faculty have done their best to support immigrant students, the upper levels of Penn State Administration have remained silent while students, faculty, staff, and workers in our community have already suffered anti-immigrant attacks,” they wrote. “As ICE continues to intensify their wholesale persecution of immigrant workers and students in the U.S., we will not stand by and allow Penn State Admin to collaborate with ICE on our campus.”
About 30 protesters began gathering outside the Allen Street gates at approximately 5:45 p.m., carrying signs that read “immigrants make America great,” “no one is illegal on stolen land,” and “no ICE at Penn State.”
Five minutes before the scheduled start time of 6 p.m., one protester with a megaphone began organizing the members and assigning chants.
“We’re going to stand with them through these attacks,” the protester said into the megaphone.
As the demonstration got underway, protesters hoisted a banner that read, “Send ICE terror and U.S. imperialism to their graves. Get organized and fight for socialist revolution.”
A counter-protester stood silently on the corner of campus, bearing a sign that read “pro ICE!”
A number of protesters came forward and gave speeches into the megaphone, including a student from United Socialists at Penn State and one from Students for Justice in Palestine.
“None of us are free until all of us are free,” the student yelled.
The demonstration continued peacefully until 6:40 p.m., when a passerby started yelling back at the protesters. He began hitting at their signs with a wooden walking stick, and the protesters began pushing back, resulting in a physical altercation.
While the physical and verbal encounter ensued with protestors and the man pushing each other, signs were torn to shreds, and the man was knocked down to the ground. Police appeared on the scene roughly five minutes later, and the protest came to a halt while they de-escalated the situation, and the man was removed from the group.
It was not immediately clear if any charges would be filed.
Following the altercation, the group began its march across campus toward the Nittany Lion Inn at 6:50 p.m.
“Trustees, trustees, you can’t hide. Stand with us or step aside,” the group chanted as they marched.
Some police officers joined them for the entirety of the march in the wake of the altercation, and police cars circled the area.
The protesters reached the Nittany Lion Inn at roughly 7:10 p.m., and they chanted continuously for the next 10 minutes outside the hotel.
The group left the Nittany Lion Inn to continue marching for a few more minutes and ultimately ended the demonstration outside the Mateer building.
“They’re [the Board of Trustees] having their meeting today. If they’re not going to listen to students, we’re going to force them to listen to us. We don’t want ICE on campus,” one of the organizers of the protest said following its conclusion.
StateCollege.com’s Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.
