Students protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and President Trump’s mass deportation program briefly locked in a standoff with shield-wielding state troopers Monday afternoon at the Alamo.
Demonstrators’ standoff with Department of Public Safety personnel came during a march from City Council Chamber to the historic Spanish mission organized by the San Antonio Students for Peace, a nonprofit whose members attend local high schools and colleges.
The marchers, who also included adults, legal observers and members of the local chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, arrived at the Alamo at around 3:30 p.m., where a heavy DPS presence was already set up in full riot gear.
With the entrance to the Alamo blocked, the protesters instead took to the steps of the Scottish Rite Temple and began singing “It’s okay for you to change your mind, because you can join us” in the direction of the troopers. A young woman with a megaphone chanted, “There’s no riot here, why are you in riot gear?”
A majority of the student protesters then headed back to Council Chambers while a small group — mostly comprised of adults — stayed behind and hurled insults at DPS personnel, before following in the footsteps of their comrades a few minutes later.
Despite the heavy presence of armed and riot gear-equipped troopers, the protest remained peaceful, and no arrests were made.
San Antonio Students for Peace has organized anti-ICE school walkouts across the city in recent weeks.
Monday’s demonstration took place mere hours after Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’d launched an investigation into whether North East Side Independent School District either approved or facilitated walkouts protesting the Trump’s administration aggressive anti-immigrant policies.
“I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda,” Paxton, an unyielding Trump ally currently running for U.S. Senate, said in a statement. “Let this serve as a warning to any public school official or employee who unlawfully facilitates student participation in protests targeting our heroic law enforcement officers: my office will use every legal tool available to hold you accountable.”
Even so, attendees of Monday’s protest — held on a day off for most San Antonio schools due to Presidents Day — were undeterred by Paxton’s threats.
“This is about humanity,” Southwest Preparatory freshman Jessie Barrera said during a speech at Council Chambers. “No human becomes less human because of where they were born, and no child deserves to grow up afraid that their family can disappear overnight. No system built on fear should be accepted as normal.”
Here’s everything we saw downtown.
