AlenaKehm

In light of a recent increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity across the country, citizens of the greater Omaha area have expressed a wide spectrum of reactions. During the month of January, two Minneapolis residents, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed by ICE agents according to Aaron Blake at CNN. Although Minneapolis is almost 400 miles away, the shockwave of these shootings reached Nebraska and stretched across the nation. Their deaths led to a nationwide general strike in opposition to ICE. Organizers called on Americans to follow the slogan “no work, no school, no shopping” on Jan. 30. 

Many businesses also chose to join in the strike by remaining closed. One Omaha business to take a stand was The Grove Juicery and Wellness Cafe. On Jan. 30, all three of The Grove’s locations were closed.

 Prior to the strike, The Grove spoke out against ICE in a social media post on Jan. 12. “We ended up going viral…a site with over 10 million followers kind of blasted us,” said owner and founder Meghann Schense. The Grove received threats and harassment for their anti-ICE message from people across the country. “We ended up taking the post down in less than 48 hours…for the safety of our team,” Schense said. 

She reiterated The Grove’s stance on ICE by participating in the general strike on Jan. 30, even with the business’s negative experience two weeks prior. “It was a major sacrifice,” Schense said. “Every day that we are closed as a small business hurts…I paid all my employees that were on the schedule [on the 30th]…even though nobody was working.” Schense said she wishes the strike could have been focused more on big corporations and less on small businesses who may be more affected by the lost revenue. 

Despite these reservations, she believes the strike’s impact was valuable. “I feel like the more people that spoke out, the stronger the message got…we have seen people on both sides coming out and saying this isn’t right.” 

The nationwide strike, coupled with extensive protests, drew national media attention for days. Among those protesters were many Nebraska students.

On Jan. 29, students at Fremont High School walked out of class to participate in a peaceful anti-ICE protest. Media coverage of the protest quickly became overshadowed by a student-vehicle accident that occurred during the event. “After the whole issue happened, a lot of people had things to say,” Fremont High School sophomore Angie Juarez Basilio said. 

Juarez Basilio chose not to attend the protest, but has heard first hand accounts from her classmates. “ The whole matter of protesting [is] really special and important, but I chose not to [participate] because…skipping class is not something that my parents worked for me to do,” Juarez Basilio said.  

The protest was organized in full by Fremont students who got the word out through social media, specifically Snapchat. Students who walked out were counted absent for the class they missed, but faced no other major consequences. 

While the intentions of the protesters were positive, “the impact of the protest was negative…I don’t think social media, the public, and the news really saw the protest as what it should’ve been,” Juarez Basilio said. She argues that the incident with the vehicle changed how the protest was perceived. “People need to understand the point of the protest was not to make memes of the girl that got hit. The point of the protest was to speak out on hard-working immigrants, and to speak for those who can’t,” Juarez Basilio said. 

Students from Omaha Westside High School also held a walk out on Friday Feb. 6 to protest ICE. Sophomore Yussuf Mohamed and a few other students organized the event. Mohamed felt that it was “time to raise our voices to…fight that fear that we are all feeling.” 

Mohamed started to organize the protest by circulating a paper petition through the school to gauge student interest in a walk-out. Thanks to a large volume of student signatures, the school’s administration got on board and started working with student organizers. In adherence with administrative guidelines, “we decided that the protest would be on Pacific Street, which isn’t on Westside High School’s property,”  Mohamed said. 

On Feb. 6, Mohamed estimates that 200 to 300 students walked out of school early to attend the protest. Armed with homemade signs and posters displaying anti-ICE messages, the students gathered for about an hour on Pacific Street. “I think that the protest was very important because…people who go to our school, [and] their families are being affected by ICE…and there’s a lot of fear and hysteria,” Mohamed said.

Not all students in the greater Omaha area share the same opinions when it comes to ICE. On Feb. 7, an Instagram account displaying Creighton Prep’s logo reposted a message that called for a walk-out in support of ICE. When asked about this post, Prep administrators stated that “Creighton Prep does not comment on posts or re-posts from social media accounts that are not affiliated with nor approved by the school.” The message was posted on an account that is frequently considered satirical, undermining the weight of potential hardship for immigrants.   

In light of ICE controversy, the Marian administration advises students to refrain from protesting during school hours to avoid disruption, and instead participate in the weekly protests at 72nd and Dodge. “I would encourage anyone, whatever your cause is, find the community action group that goes with it,” Marian principal Dr. Susie Sullivan said.

As this issue remains divisive, Marian holds strong to Catholic Social Teaching, and calls on all students and the greater Marian community to respect the dignity of all people, and to care for those who are most vulnerable.