Getting ready to leave the house to head to H-E-B, she pauses, taking a moment to decide if it is really worth it to leave if it means putting herself at risk of a run in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). What once felt completely normal, now feels odd for senior Alison Milla as ICE presence increases in and around the Austin area.
Milla legally immigrated from Honduras around six years ago, and has worked to create a new life for herself here in the U.S., but what once felt like an open world of opportunity now feels to her like a place where people are targeted because of their background.
“At this point I don’t feel welcome, and I don’t feel like I’m given the opportunity to also achieve my goals,” Milla said. “I definitely don’t feel like it’s a free country at all, and I’m not trying to say I should be treated as a native born citizen, but I also shouldn’t be treated like another species, like an alien. I feel like they’re pretty much trying to push me out and push my people out, without realizing that we also deserve a chance to have a life here.”
Milla is not the only one who feels that what is currently going on with ICE in the U.S. is wrong. Protests have broken out across the country, and have only been fueled by recent controversial actions by ICE including the shootings of two American citizens. This outrage has made its way to the Austin area with protests popping up all over the city, and walkouts taking place at 14 Austin Independent School District (AISD) schools on January 30.
“It’s really good that people are spreading awareness and making their voices heard and letting representatives know that we’re aware of this and we’re not just going to let it happen,” senior Ethan Pfeiffer said. “We’re letting our representatives know this isn’t what we want. This is what the administration is doing out of their own greed because it serves their agenda, and not because it’s what the people want.”
WHAT IS ICE?
According to the official ICE website, the mission of ICE is to enforce immigration laws, and conduct criminal investigations in order to protect America and preserve both national security and public safety. The website states that while the main focus of ICE is to secure the U.S. borders and safeguard the immigration system, the majority of ICE missions take place in the interior of the country.
“I understand their goal, but the way they’re executing it is wrong,” Milla said. “They’ve exceeded the limit from going just for criminals and people who are not bringing a positive thing to the country as a whole. Now, they are just targeting people based on race, based on color, and based on appearance, and I feel like they are just encroaching on our human rights as citizens.”
According to the ICE website, the eligibility requirements for someone to apply to be a deportation officer include U.S. citizenship, having a valid drivers license, being eligible to carry a gun, and being under 40 years old. Applicants also have to pass a fitness test and go through a vetting process which can take anywhere from two weeks to one year. According to the ICE website, once hired, officers must go through a five week Spanish language training, and a 16 week immigration and law enforcement training. According to PBS White House Correspondent Liz Landers, the reported 10,000 agents hired in 2025 has left some people concerned about ICE recruitment tactics, hiring practices, and training standards.
“I’ve seen videos of ICE in situations where people got hurt and killed, and they just act very unprofessionally,” senior Owen Hayden said. “They’re just really aggressive, tear gassing kids and stuff, and I don’t think any kind of training would tell someone that is okay. They’re not just targeting a certain group of people, they’re targeting everyone, like, anyone that speaks out against them, so it feels like no one’s safe, and that’s really scary.”
ICE has received a lot of scrutiny over their practices in the field recently due to posts and videos spread of them wearing masks, forcefully detaining people, using tear gas, using pepper spray, and arresting people without giving a reason. In addition to this, many wonder if ICE is truly standing by its mission to go after “the worst of the worst,” with The Guardian reporting that more than 328,000 people were arrested by ICE and nearly 327,000 people were deported by ICE since October 14, 2025 with the arrests of those with no criminal record significantly surpassing that of those with a criminal record or pending charges as of September 7, 2025.
“What they’re doing is really messed up,” Hayden said. “They’re just breaking laws, and doing it without consequence. They’re hiding their faces and hiding from responsibility. It’s people that just want to hurt other people, just because they have an excuse to.”
“I’ve seen a lot of stories online of people being harassed by ICE, agents just taking them, breaking their windows, opening their doors without their consent and exceeding their boundaries and their personal space,” Milla said. “It makes me feel unsafe, and It makes me feel like I’m not welcomed in the country just because of how I look and how I talk. It makes me feel scared for me, my family, and my friends. At this point the legal stuff doesn’t matter, it’s just how people look.”
SCHOOL ICE PROTOCOL
On January 21, Austin Independent School District (AISD) Superintendent Matias Segura sent a message to the AISD community pledging to review and update school protocol in response to any changes to ICE policies or practices. Segura also re-emphasized that the district is “committed to serving all students and families, regardless of immigration status,” and mentioned that information regarding school policy pertaining to ICE is available on the AISD website along with resources to support students, parents, and staff.
“Nothing’s really changed for ICE related protocols as far as AISD’s approach or guidance for us on the campus level,” Academic Director Kaylin Brett said. “We’ve definitely seen more ICE presence, and more activity, so I know that there’s more need for us to understand the policy now. When we first got the policy last year, we didn’t really do anything with it because we weren’t seeing it. Now that we are seeing it, the last principal’s meeting I was at principals requested for information about ICE related policies to be sent out again, and that’s what generated Mr. Segura to send out the email.”
Currently, there is a step-by-step process schools can follow if ICE agents were to show up on campus. If ICE were to show up on campus, any documentation they have would be taken and sent to the AISD legal team for verification. The school administrators would then be in contact with the district office to receive guidance on how to proceed. Student Resource Officers (SRO’s) are also contacted to ensure student safety. According to Brett, local Austin superintendents have met with ICE and have been informed that it is not their typical practice or intent to come to school campuses.
“I don’t worry about ICE when I’m at school,” student Jane Doe* said. “I live in a mostly Hispanic area, not around Bowie, so I feel like out here, I do feel safer and in the walls of my school, I don’t fear anything happening to me. I definitely do worry about ICE when I’m at home. I have seen a lot of things on the news saying that ice is around where I live, and I live right next to a school where the majority of the student body is Hispanic, so it is really frightening. I am really scared for my parents whenever they leave the house, just because of the super sudden things that happen with ICE and people just living their lives.”
AISD has resources available for families and staff in the case of an ICE related crisis. There are FAQ’s available on the AISD website for any clarifying questions involving ICE policy, and schools or families can request a parent support specialist who can provide families with guidance on many different topics.
“We have support services in the district where we can help students in different situations, because unfortunately, there are situations where things happen and kids don’t have someone to go home to,” Brett said. “We do have services to support in those moments and in the moments afterwards, and I would hope that students would seek help. Even if they tell a friend, I hope the friend would come and seek help, speak up for them, and say, ‘let’s go to your counselor or let’s tell someone’ so that we can make sure that the student is safe to go wherever they end up after school.”
Along with providing support for families, AISD has also provided resources for teachers to navigate conversations about ICE with their students. According to Brett the main ideas emphasized to teachers is that they should listen if a student expresses concerns to them and support them while remaining neutral and being mindful not to take a political stance. According to the AISD website, Government, Debate, and World Cultures teachers are allowed to talk about how “political activities unfold and differing viewpoints are contemplated” as long as they remain neutral and are cautious to include multiple perspectives in their lessons.
“The closest I’ve gotten to a lesson about ICE is maybe in government, and it’s mentioned completely indirectly,” Pfeiffer said. “There are lessons that have important information on how to see the error in ICE’s ways. We learn about due process and how a government should be run, and then we have to be able to go out and research and see what ICE is actually doing, to see where the discrepancies are. There are also lessons in history where the same thing happens, but it’s also not connected, we have to see the parallels for ourselves.”
(Liberty Pittman)
BOWIE WALKOUT
A group of Bowie seniors, inspired by other protests around Austin and outraged with ICE behavior, decided to plan a walkout. The group of organizers consists of seniors Hannah Fellers, Lyla Womack, and Yazzie Bukhari. They planned for the walkout to take place on Friday, February 13, following the end of second lunch and have spread information using their Instagram account @bowieprotests. The group has worked to plan a route for the walkout, keep participants and admin informed about their plans, and encourage participants to dress in a way that reflects their culture in order to spread their message that everyone in America is an immigrant except natives.
“They’re taking immigrants that are ‘illegal’, but this is Native American land, we’re all immigrants,” Fellers said. “What’s happening with ICE is honestly terrifying. They’re just going down the street and picking out any person of color that they see, and stereotyping them and that’s obviously not moral or legal, especially when they don’t have warrants to be doing so. It’s really scary to see, especially in a state that’s on the border of Mexico. People aren’t able to go to work to make a living, and some kids aren’t going to school because of it. It’s impacting everyone in so many different ways.”
In addition to encouraging participation, the organizers have used their platform to remind prospective participants that their walkout is a form of peaceful protest. The group has advised protesters that they should counter opposition with respectful conversation rather than hostility in order to inform their fellow students rather than encourage violence. The group has also warned their fellow students to keep their protest clean, as signs with profanity can be taken by admin.
“It’s so important not to be a bystander right now and not think this will get solved, because, in reality, it’s not getting solved, it’s getting worse,” Fellers said. “It’s going to make so much more of a difference if we all work together and that’s why I especially wanted to have time in advance for the protest, because I really wanted the protest to have a community. I want the message to be extremely clear that this is about giving a voice to the people that aren’t able to use their voice, and to show that it’s all from a place of kindness and peace.”
While Fellers and other organizers are very passionate about their cause, they have also warned any students with pending immigration status, or worries about being a target of ICE not to come. The organizers also stated on their Instagram that they will have masks available for any students who wish to protest but have their face covered.
“I was originally going to be one of the people leading the protest, but my mom came to me and said that she was really afraid of me doing that and me being seen on TV,” Doe* said. “In that situation the government has all the power, and it is really frightening what they can do, and the ability that they have to find my family. So, for my safety, I don’t plan on going to the protest, but I do really want to help out and speak out about ICE and how prejudice they’re being against immigrants.”
Throughout the protest planning process Fellers stated that she received both support from the community offering to bring speakers and instruments, and hate from the community for being “woke.” In light of all of the different responses from the Bowie community Fellers wants to emphasize that regardless of political alignment, everyone is welcome to protest if they believe in the cause.
“Some people think this is supposed to be Democrats versus conservatives, but that isn’t what it is,” Fellers said. “It’s about innocent lives and people versus evil. It’s just crazy to me that there’s people who don’t have basic morals, there’s all these people being like, ‘Oh, this is woke.’ This isn’t woke, this is just sympathy. That’s one of the reasons the protest is the day before Valentine’s Day. This is for love. This is for the people. It’s not about political parties. It’s about human lives.”
*Jane Doe is a fictitious name created to protect the identity of a source who wished to remain anonymous.
