About 3,000 people packed into Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza Friday afternoon to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and to stand in solidarity with people in Minnesota.
The crowd downtown stretched to cover all of Civic Plaza, with signs carrying slogans like “Love melts ICE” held aloft and chants echoing across the large public space near City Hall.
Organizers say the event was just one of many that took place across the country as part of a national shutdown to prepare for a general strike to denounce the actions of ICE, and the Trump administration following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday it will conduct a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death.
Donovan Glasgow with the Albuquerque Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), one of the event organizers, said the event was about getting everyday people more politically active, using the political energy of the moment to create something lasting.
“We all deserve to not have ICE terrorize our communities,” he said. “We all deserve universal health care. We all deserve safe places to sleep at night. And if we get organized as the working class, which you can think about as the 99% of the population, we have the power to win those demands.”
In addition to the PSL, the event was organized by Yucca NM, the Southwest Solidarity Network, the United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico, and Indivisible Albuquerque.
Albuquerque High School students joined the crowd after walking out of classes, then marching to the rally as Albuquerque Police blocked off streets along their way.
The AHS walkout was organized by four friends, Izzy, Maxwell, Bec and Devajune, who declined to give their last names. They used instagram to connect with their fellow students. Izzy says after an initial walkout in protest of ICE activities last week, they were inspired to sustain that energy.
“We were like, ‘We got to keep this momentum going, you know, we got to organize more events.’ And we heard about the protest here, so we decided to organize a group to walk here,” he said.
Bec said the experience has encouraged her to continue engaging politically.
“Seeing how many people are involved and how many people care about this, and young people too, and they are honestly just waiting to organize and waiting for a leader,” she said. “It felt really empowering to be part of this, and have so many people who want to be part of this.”
Maxwell said they were surprised by the amount of support they received.
“The first walkout we did, Izzy and I planned in under 36 hours, and we had so many people turn out,” he said. “That showed how ready people are to organize.”
Glasgow said event organizers hope the rally will also spur others who turned out to join an organization and participate in mutual aid.
“We know that Albuquerque is a potential target of the Trump administration,” he said. “So we got to get ready, we got to get organized, and we got to be prepared to do this again and again, in solidarity with other cities and to protect our city.”
The rally eventually marched from Civic Plaza through Downtown in front of the federal building on Gold Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets, then back to Civic Plaza. There was no violence or any major issues reported, though organizers did confirm a man in body armor was seen following the crowd in a car.
Glasgow said he hopes people will consider volunteering or financially supporting organizations working in the community.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
