One of Donald Trump’s most polarizing campaign planks was his pledge to begin a program of mass deportations of migrants living in the country. He spoke of ushering in “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” and planned to use the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) to accomplish this.
In the first month of President Trump’s second term, a number of his policies and initiatives, from his Elon Musk run Department of Government Efficiency to his flurry of executive orders, have grabbed the headlines every single day. But what Kennesaw State students came out to protest was his policy and rhetoric focused on mass deportations.
Kennesaw State’s Students for Socialism (SFS) in partnership with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) held a protest near the campus green decrying Trump’s immigration stances and vowing to represent those whom they felt were being harmed, and chants such as “Abolish ICE” were mainstays of the protest.
Hannah, a Kennesaw State student who was seen holding a sign saying “white silence is violence” spoke with the Sentinel shortly after the protest began.
“It means that if white people don’t stand up for these marginalized communities, then the blood is on their hands, they’re part of the problem,” she said, explaining her sign.
She created a striking historical analogy to great human atrocities and the treatment of migrants today, saying, “everyone likes to imagine what they’d be doing right now if they were living during the Holocaust or during slavery, and that’s what we’re living through right now is that these immigrant families are being taken away from their homes and put into camps where their lives are threatened.”
She also emphasized the importance of political organization in fighting against these deportations with “we need to organize, we need to show up to town hall meetings. We need to do boycotts for companies that are supporting the deportations.”
She finished by outlining how she felt the country should move forward with immigration, stating, “I think that we need to focus on mass integration instead of spending millions of dollars to rip people from their homes and put them into camps.”
Another KSU student, Brad, had much to say about the protest.
“Trump isn’t just trying to deport illegal immigrants…he’s trying to get these bills passed that are going to then deport these legal immigrants on visas, green cards. He’s trying to get them out of here, and it’s wrong inherently,” he said.
He briefly spoke on the economic impacts of these deportations, saying, “We’re going to see a huge loss in jobs that’s going to very much hurt our economy. We do not have the resources to pick up these jobs.”
He also predicted for the next several years, the country would see “a rise in fascism and right wing ideology.”
The PSL has consistently made their voices known on campus, with one of the group’s largest demonstrations on campus taking place on the first anniversary of the October 7th attacks in Israel that sparked a devastating war in Gaza, not reaching a lasting ceasefire until the day before President Trumps’ second inauguration.
The Sentinel spoke with several of the protest organizers.
Grace Blomberg, a geography major and SFS chant leader, spoke of a universal struggle that motivated her to protest, saying, “I’m here because I believe that all struggles are interconnected, and a big struggle right now is the immigrants rights struggle.”
She backed this up by talking about ICE classroom raids and the impacts they’ve had on students, saying of the operations, “I don’t believe that is humane. I believe that everyone in America should have a right to education without fear of being deported.”
Grace highlighted the importance of education in opposing Trump’s immigration policies, saying, “no matter how much [The Trump administration] attacks education, we still have it as a tool.”
She continued referencing tactics that have been employed against ICE.
“The border czar, Tom Homan, has said explicitly that people are too educated and that Know Your Rights trainings are actively making ICE’s job very difficult,” she said.
She closed by expressing what her hopes for the future of the country were, with, “I believe that a better system is not only possible, but necessary…We have all the resources in America to provide for every single person here, so it is within our reach.”
Lupe Miranda, another protest organizer, characterized her motivation as “protesting for human rights” and spoke about her personal connection to the issue, with both of her parents being immigrants.
She went on to praise immigrants for their contributions to the country, saying, “…immigrants are the ones that make the country run. Immigrants are the ones putting food on your tables…without immigrants, life would not function the way it is now.”
She spoke of her ambitions for the future.
“We might right now be a minority, but we will eventually grow to be the majority.”
She finished by leveling a strong condemnation of President Trump.
“Trump is not doing anything to benefit us, no matter what race, no matter if you’re an immigrant or not, no matter if you’re connected to an immigrant directly, we’re all affected by the same issues.”
While the protest was largely student led, one notable outlier was senior lecturer of sociology, Dr. Richard Hutchinson, who delivered a speech to the protest group.
Dr. Hutchinson first keyed in on the recent history of deportations across presidents, including Obama and Biden, but condemned the policy nonetheless, saying, “…we need a reform of our immigration system. We need most of these immigrant workers.”
He then referenced how he believed the Trump administration was using the immigration issue, with, “Trump is using the issue to stir up his base and he’s moving us in a more overtly fascist direction.”
He described a “constitutional crisis” based on Trump’s “usurpation of power” through executive orders that he believes Congress would never pass, especially considering the significant opposition power held by the Democratic Party.
On the topic of immigration reform, Dr. Hutchinson advocated for a “path to citizenship for people who’ve been working here and are not in trouble with the law.”
He even meditated on a guest worker program where immigrants could have a permit to come and work for a limited period of time that could be renewed if their work was still needed. He acknowledged, however, that this would still be less preferable than easing the path to citizenship.
Dr. Hutchinson then switched gears to the idea of faculty members engaging in protests, saying, “It would be better if there were [more faculty involved in these kinds of protests].”
Adding some nuance to the discussion, he noted that “I feel badly there aren’t [more faculty protesting], but this is a small fraction of the student population as well.”
He explored possible ideas why there were so few faculty members there, stating, “the fact of the matter is, most people don’t get involved in protest movements…it’s a challenge for people’s time and energy.”
He closed with one final note about faculty and protest.
“The faculty know more than students, and so I would say they have a greater responsibility to act on what they know. So I feel a bit badly that more of them aren’t here because of that.”
The second Trump administration has hit the ground running on a number of issues that will come to define the country for years to come, but immigration debate seems to be one of the most personal of them all. As deportations continue, the students of Kennesaw State University will continue to have their voices heard.
