At 3 p.m. Jan. 30, hundreds of UVM students participated in a nationwide march in protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

UVM students arrived at the Waterman Building at 2 p.m., before walking down College Street to meet hundreds of other protestors at Burlington City Hall. 

“[The fact] that so many devoted several hours to a walkout demonstrates our conviction,” said Jackson Francis, UVM senior, protest organizer and member of the Vermont Party for Socialism and Liberation. 

Over 300 protests were held on Jan. 30 across the U.S. as part of the ICE Out movement, with protestors carrying signs saying “Stand with Minnesota,” “ICE OUT,” “Vermont, Shut it Down,” and “No Work. No School. No Shopping.”

Francis said they organized the protest to stand in solidarity with the Somali and Black Student organizations at the University of Minnesota, who called for the nationwide protest.

The Champlain College and UVM chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, along with the UVM Young Democratic Socialists of America, worked with Migrant Justice and the Vermont PSL to organize the event, said an anonymous SJP member. 

“The main reason that we got the turnout we did is because UVM students were clearly passionate about this,” the anonymous SJP member said.

As protesters arrived at the Waterman building around 2 p.m., student organizers from UVM and Champlain College distributed pamphlets on protest safety. 

An anonymous student speaker at the Waterman building discussed how the protests in Minneapolis had inspired their action, encouraging the crowd to continue attending community events and speaking out against ICE. 

“It is our duty as anti-fascists in Vermont to burn brightly, to burn hot enough to melt the ICE,” the anonymous speaker said.  

After the speakers had finished at the Waterman building at 3 p.m., protestors began to march down to Burlington City Hall, escorted by the Burlington Police Department. 

The protestors blocked traffic as they marched to Church Street, looped around South Winooski Ave and stopped in front of City Hall. 

“We are here to unite as one. When we say ICE out of our community, we are saying we are one family,” said Molly Furin, a City Hall speaker and physician at the UVM Medical Center.

Employees of shops on Church Street stood in front of their windows, several holding signs condemning ICE. One worker at Maven Skate Shop closed the store and joined the assembly.

Some stores were also closed from 3 to 4 p.m. in solidarity with the protest, including Crow Bookstore and Ben and Jerry’s.

An anonymous SJP member said organizers were surprised and pleased with the turnout of UVM students, concluding that the walkout was a success overall.  

“I’d say the walkout went better than anybody expected. It was much better. I think that I was expecting a crowd of half that size, if that,” the anonymous SJP member said.