Mayor Ron Nirenberg briefly stepped out to listen in.
SAN ANTONIO — Hundreds of San Antonio ISD students, some of them draped in Mexican and U.S. flags, marched to the steps of City Hall on Wednesday afternoon to speak out against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The procession arrived to the heart of downtown shortly before 3 p.m., where students took turns decrying that their “rights are being stripped away.” Similar protests have unfolded across the country in recent days, pushing against the new administration’s rash of orders on everything from trade and immigration to climate change.
In a letter sent to families, SAISD leaders said that while they are “allowed to exercise their rights to peacefully protest,” they “do not recommend nor encourage off-campus protest.”
“It is important to know that participation off-campus is not a district-sanctioned event,” SAISD administrators wrote. “If a student leaves the campus and misses class to participate, they will be subject to consequences that follow the student code of conduct.”
Despite the potential discipline, loud cheers and applause broke out at downtown’s Military Plaza when a small group of high school students – including Jefferson High School senior Adrian Alvarado – caught sight of a crowed of hundreds marching their way.
“All these orders being passed for ICE coming and deporting Mexicans and people who have been a part of this community for years, people who have put blood, sweat and tears into building all of this around us – buildings, cities, homes – he’s throwing them out of the country after all the hard work that they’ve put in to this country,” Alvarado said, referring to Trump.
The students arrived carrying signs reading “No to deportations,” “ICE out of our schools” and “Families together.” Upon arriving they briefly chanted: “We have a voice!”
The extent and forcefulness of Trump’s actions on immigration – including empowering authorities to arrest migrants at sensitive locations and his efforts to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. to someone in the country illegally – have been met with criticism since his inauguration.
While ICE hasn’t formally released a report on recent deportation numbers on its website – that’s usually done at the end of every quarter – the agency has been sharing arrest and detainee figures most days on social media. ICE deported more than 271,000 individuals in Fiscal Year 2024.
Wednesday’s student rally took on a personal tone from speakers who said they didn’t want their youth to be an excuse for not speaking up. Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Councilwoman Melissa Cabella Havrda briefly stepped outside City Hall to listen in on the remarks, which also touched on gun safety, book bans and the “genocide” in Gaza.
“Why should we stand for it? Why should we have to sit around and see our rights being taken away, not only as youth, but as women, as Hispanics and as people in general?” said one student, Leslie Guererro. “It is not a matter of whether we are illegal or not—it is human decency we are asking for.”
Another student shared her recollections as a third grader who was “terrified that my family would be taken from me.”
“I was too young to understand politics, but old enough to feel that fear,” she said. “No child should have to grow up with that.”