Dozens of Beacon Academy students took to the streets of downtown Evanston to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday afternoon. 

The demonstration took place during a period of the school day without scheduled classes, but rather time intended for students to meet with teachers. 

Around 65 students walked the first circuit, and then around 20 in the second, Beacon Academy junior Sophronia Carruthers said.

The students chanted slogans against ICE, including “Abolish ICE” and “Hey hey, ho ho, I-C-E has got to go.” 

They also held handmade signs with slogans like “No human is illegal” and “ICE belongs in the rink not raids,” the latter referencing the hockey-themed television series “Heated Rivalry.”  

Beacon Academy senior Blake Dooley held a handmade sign that read “Abolish ICE” on notebook paper.  

Dooley said they wanted to show support for immigrants and people of color, especially after hearing about ICE’s detention of five-year-old Minnesota boy Liam Conejo Ramos and ICE’s killing of Minnesota woman Renee Nicole Good. 

“All these people are being killed for just existing,” Dooley said.

After hearing about walkouts at larger high schools in Chicago, Carruthers said she wanted to organize a protest at Beacon, which she described as a “small Montessori school.” 

Prior to the protest, Carruthers said she worked with leaders of Beacon Academy’s Latinx Club to organize a panel with members who had been affected by federal immigration enforcement.   

One of those students, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said some of his peers lived near Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, which ICE and the Department of Homeland Security used as a command center in late 2025.

“The stark contrast between coming to school and feeling this sanctuary, and then going back home and feeling unsafe, almost without logic — the transition between feeling safe and not safe — was too disorienting,” the student said. 

Still, the student said Wednesday’s demonstration reminded him he had support. 

He and other protesting students were met with encouragement from passersby, and drivers honked their car horns in support as they walked through downtown Evanston. 

“It just dawned on me that it’s not really my issue but rather a national issue, where I do have support from other people,” the student said. 

First Ward resident Donna Harrison applauded as the group passed The Chandler’s Building.

Harrison, who said she is 71 years old and has lived in Evanston for 26 years, said it is important for the next generation to vote and stay politically engaged. 

“It’s got to be the young people,” Harrison said. “That’s what happened in Vietnam. If it wasn’t for the young people that came out, that war wouldn’t have been over.”

Carruthers said she teared up at the level of support she found downtown. 

Beacon Academy junior Leo, whose parents requested he be referred to only by his first name, said the protest served as a way for him to express his opposition to a variety of issues in addition to ICE presence. 

Leo said current rhetoric around immigration and LGBTQ+ rights has impacted both him and his friends. 

“Staying quiet would be the worst thing I could do right now,” Leo said. 

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