Seven Sacramento high schools planning coordinated anti-ICE walkout to Capitol
Update: Elk Grove district school to join Sacramento ICE protest at state Capitol
Sacramento high school students are planning a district-wide walkout Friday morning, joining a nationwide student effort to protest immigration enforcement following fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
Students plan to walk out of school around 10:30 a.m. Friday and make their way to the John E. Moss Federal Building on Capitol Mall, which holds people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Organizers said they are protesting the “brutal oppression” of migrant families and American citizens by ICE and President Donald Trump’s administration. They are calling for the abolition of ICE and for Sacramento City Council to reaffirm its status as a sanctuary city for immigrants.
“This is a peaceful walkout demonstration to show that the students in California’s capital do not stand with ICE,” McClatchy High junior and walkout organizer Michael Heffron said. “It’s also to show solidarity to those in Minnesota — the protesters who have been killed, those who have been injured for standing up for their own civil rights.”
The student-led effort is a part of a national strike calling for “no work, no school, no shopping” to protest immigration enforcement and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this month, as well as the six immigrants who died while in ICE custody in 2026.
In addition to McClatchy, students from Hiram Johnson, Rosemont, Luther Burbank, West Campus, The Met and Health Professions High Schools plan to join the walkout.
California students want ICE out
The walkout, planned in under a week, started as an idea for an intimate gathering at McClatchy High but quickly grew into a movement that involves seven local high schools.
The teen organizers are expecting a large turnout — they secured a permit for 700 to gather on the Capitol’s west steps. McClatchy High junior Louis Russell said that they expect about 1,000 to show.
Although the event is gaining the attention of local officials (spokespeople for Sacramento Councilmember Mai Vang and Assemblymember Maggy Krell each confirmed their plans to attend), the Sacramento teens organizing the event said that it has been entirely student-led.
The organizers’ Instagram page provided walking and public transportation routes from seven of Sacramento City Unified School District’s high schools. Students will take either the blue or yellow light rail lines to the Archives Plaza station, where students will meet and march to the Capitol, where students are slated to give speeches.
They plan for part of the group to advance to the Moss building, and for part of the group to remain at the Capitol with students who fear for their safety at the federal building because of their race or immigration status.
The page is also sharing information about how to safely engage in the protest.
“I think it would be irresponsible of us not to be nervous,” McClatchy High junior and organizer Rosa Maria (Roma) Orozco said. “It is important that we acknowledge that things could go awry, but with the commitment that all of our students here at McClatchy and other schools are showing, I feel rather confident that we will show solidarity and protection for each other to make things go as planned.”
A spokesperson for the Sacramento Police Department said that they will be monitoring the protest and will respond as necessary.
“We’ve taken every step we possibly could to stay safe, but we do want to be noticed and let people know that the people of Sacramento are not going to be quiet and be shut up in their schools while people are being killed and while violence is happening in their country,” Russell said.
Several school site leaders have sent messages to families acknowledging the planned school walkout. In a message to West Campus High families, Principal John McMeekin said that students have a free-speech right to assemble and that the school is required to remain neutral to student-led events. Students walking out will be marked with an unexcused absence but can return to class later in the day.
McMeekin noted the “politically charged moment in our nation” and asked that the school community not to pressure or harass one another, warning that reported incidents would be addressed. He also reminded students that school rules will apply should they “engage in dangerous or other concerning behaviors.”
District spokesperson Al Goldberg said that safety personnel will be at school sites as the walkout begins.
Several students organizing Friday’s protest were involved in 2025 walkouts at Sacramento City Unified high schools protesting executive orders affecting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 3:07 PM.
