In a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), around 100 students walked out of Clover Hill High School and took to the streets on Friday, Feb. 6 at 2:15 PM.

ICE is a federal agency created in the wake of 9/11 to control immigration into the United States and deport people who lack official documentation. It has been extremely controversial in the past year since it became closely connected to Donald Trump and the his administration’s policies and ideas about immigrants. The United States government deployed ICE in multiple Democrat-controlled cities over the past year, where anonymous officers with total immunity from the law are arresting and subsequently detaining or deporting people, 86% of whom lack any charge or conviction for a violent criminal offense. ICE arrested approximately 400,000 people in the first year after he took office, raising the number held in their over 200 detention centers to a new record of 73,000 at a time in January. ICE has drawn especially harsh criticism in recent weeks after agents murdered two Minneapolis residents amid city wide protesting and organized resistance. In total, the agency has killed eight people since the start of 2026.

Junior Matthew Montney was among the students who attended the walkout.

“They are taking families out of their homes, deporting people that are actually American, and they’re not doing basically anything by the law,” Montney said.

The county-wide anti-ICE walkout and protest gained traction after an anonymous Instagram account under the username lcbirdphoto posted a call to action on Jan. 26th that encouraged students to walk out of their 4th period classes in protest.

“This is a student-led peaceful walkout at Chesterfield County Public Schools held in solidarity with individuals and families impacted by the discriminatory practices of ICE and the Trump administration,” the post said.

When Friday, Feb. 6 came, students walked out and joined their peers, while chanting political slogans from the roadside for the full hour of protesting. Despite the Instagram post telling them to turn around at the roundabout near Swift Creek Middle, they simply kept walking until they reached an intersection with Genito over a mile from the school and found themselves unable to continue on without jaywalking.

Montney was among the loudest voices in the crowd.

“I will say my voice definitely still hurts. I have not been able to yell like that in forever, and the fact that I could yell for that long is amazing,” Montney said.

Junior Mak Tampanello found himself at the front of Clover Hill’s walkout, leading over 100 students down the street. 

“I’m very, very adamant about this. It’s something I’d give my life for, protesting,” Tampanello said.

Tampanello is personally invested in the issue.

“My dad, he’s an immigrant. He’s a U.S. citizen now but, he came here illegally,” he said. “The U.S. immigration system is [broken.] You have to come here legally, and then stay here for 10 years without performing a single misdemeanor, not even a parking violation, or you’re out.”

Tampanello disagrees with the far-right belief that most criminals are immigrants.

“They have the lowest crime rates because they have to stay here for 10 years without doing a single thing. ICE, they just racially profile, they’re not law enforcement, and they go off suspicion. Which, that suspicion is just being colored,” he said.

A very passionate Tampanello draws inspiration from his vision of what America should be.

“This is the land of the free! That’s what I always grew up to think … if you support [ICE], you’re racist, and you’re not an American. You’re a traitor to this country,” Tampanello said.

Another reason for his objection to the existence of immigration control had yet to be mentioned at the protest. 

“I don’t think we should be able to own land. I don’t think as humans we should be able to own mother nature. That’s not ours. That’s not something you can rule, and law, that’s not something you can just do, it’s not ours. You can’t do that. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Tampanello said.

Tampanello wasn’t the only student who led the protest. Junior Jackson Hunter was in a similar situation. 

Hunter shared a message of perseverance. 

“I think everybody was really cold, but I think because of the cause and how much people care about it people pushed through it and still protested, like people out there in short sleeves, and people pushed through things because they care about the cause so much,” Hunter said.

Many protesters, including Hunter, “don’t want ICE in the community” and think “a protest is the only peaceful way to get rid of ICE.” 

Hunter contributed signs to the protest.

“I made them myself,” he said.

Along with three others, he stood on the sidewalk along the parent parking lot and passed them out to students like Montney as they walked out.

“I just came when it happened, and when I was out there, I don’t know who it was, but some person gave me a sign and I was like… ‘Cool! Yeah, I’ll take a sign. Why not?’” Montney said. “And it’s right now in my room, ready to be hung on my wall.” 

Tensions rose for participating students after they noticed a police car returning to the scene of the protest multiple times, even pulling to the side of the road in front of them and speaking with one of the walkout’s organizers, who explained to the crowd that, much to everyone’s relief, the police officer was only advising students.

“You guys are perfectly fine to be out here doing this, but stay off the roads and stay safe,” the officer said.

Numerous others on the road drew attention too when they honked their horns in support of the students. Each time, protesters would turn and cheer, holding up their signs to celebrate a shared cause. Among all the traffic watching the walkout, not a single person stopped to counterprotest, argue, or fight with anyone. 

Senior Jax Bulbrook was another student who participated.

“I’m here because ICE sucks, and I think it needs to be abolished. I saw this protest online, and I wanted to join and spread awareness,” Bulbrook said.

Bulbrook hopes that the protest will change the perspectives of community members.

“Ultimately, I think this protest is a good way to spread awareness, specifically in the school, and just let people know that there are people that stand with them against ICE, because a lot of mainstream media seems to be pushing this idea that people aren’t really willing to resist, or they’re just submitting, especially local governments, and doing things like this on a smaller scale I think shows that local communities are willing to stand up for people,” Bulbrook said.

Similarly to Tampanello, Bulbrook based his beliefs on what America means to him.

“We’re supposed to have liberty and justice for all, and these ICE agents saying that they have absolute immunity, and you either need to obey or die, is just not what America’s about and needs to become,” Bulbrook said.

Bulbrook’s ideas are not new.

“I’ve believed in this for a long time,” Bulbrook said.

Soon after the original post on Instagram began to spread, many school administrations warned of possible repercussions for participating students, including suspension and the loss of prom attendance. Clover Hill principal David Altizer explained this to parents in a series of emails.

“We will have to provide discipline consequences for any student who leaves the building without permission per CCPS policy,” Altizer said.

The Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) policy referenced by Altizer was confirmed in an earlier email to be policy 4010-R.

Policy 4010-R says that students who willfully disobey or defy the authority of any employee may face disciplinary actions such as suspension or expulsion.

Many students became frustrated with admin communications regarding the protest. One walkout participant, senior Kt Stock, found these communications to be unclear.

“They did what they had to do,” Stock said.

Clover Hill admin cited safety concerns in a Google meet displayed to the school on Wednesday, Feb. 4th.

Despite the risk of reprimand, many student leaders sought a loophole in the policy.

Students walked much farther down the street than initially planned, navigating piles of snow and ice. Junior Hart Miller was inspired by his peers’ curiosity.

“Being a student leader in the school, I had gotten lots of messages from my peers asking how to walk out… and with lots of people asking me for more details, I decided to reach out to administration and get involved with the walkout, ” Miller said. 

Miller hopes that both students and adults can learn from events like this, which helped inspire him to push for students.

“I think the community needs to understand that just because we are students doesn’t mean that our opinions or voices are invalid. I think some people think that just because we’re young, we don’t have a full understanding of the situation,” Miller said. “But I think that a lot of people in the school really knew what they were doing, and they knew what they were walking out for. They knew what they were protesting against.”

Hunter shared a similar perspective.

“Even though we’re younger, we definitely have a voice, we matter, and what we say matters,” Hunter said.

Student organizers met with administration and discovered a loophole. They learned that it was written into the CCPS 2025-2026 Parent Handbook and Standards for Student Conduct, within the attendance policy section under School Board policy 4020.

“It’s somewhere in the handbook that we get one excused absence a year for protest,” senior Gloria Amado said.

The handbook read, “Absences and tardies that may be considered excused upon parent notification to school include: for middle and high school students, one school day per year to engage in a civic event.”

The only catch for students was that in order for policy 4020 to apply within the context of a school walkout and protest, students must leave school property. Because of this, students of Clover Hill High school moved the protest location further down Kelly Green Lane.

“[Students] were able to walk out and protest by filling out an early dismissal pass and going to the roundabout, so that way we can exercise our rights to protest and not face school consequences for leaving early,” Amado said.

In the aftermath of the walkout, images and videos from across the county were quickly shared on social media, with some Instagram posts from Clover Hill reaching far beyond the school’s network of students to gain thousands of likes. Efforts to inspire students to evaluate and form their own opinions have already begun with teachers sharing lessons and assignments to encourage students to form an educated perspective. Many students have expressed similar frustrations with ICE and tried to spur further activism, both independently and in this coordinated protest.

“It’s all very unjust,” Montney said. “I just don’t like human rights violations.”