Texas Students Skip School to Protest Arrests of Violent Criminals

High school students from Austin, Texas, skipped school to protest the arrest by immigration officials of violent criminals and people who sexually assault children. The truant protesters handed out flyers advising illegal aliens of their rights when encountering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

The students are passing out flyers to cars driving by, with advice for dealing with immigration officers by remaining silent pic.twitter.com/3Co0lhspSL

— Brianna Stone (@bristone19) February 17, 2017

Approximately 30 high school students from various Austin schools left the classrooms and gathered near a north Austin HEB store to protest recent immigration arrests. The arrests, which occurred late last week, landed 51 criminal aliens in jail facing deportation, Breitbart Texas reported.

Among the 51 criminal aliens rounded up by ICE agents on Thursday and Friday were 16 convicted criminals. Those included a Mexican national previously deported following a conviction for aggravated assault; a Salvadoran national who pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child; and another Mexican national convicted of domestic violence as a repeat offender, information obtained by Breitbart Texas from ICE officials revealed. These are the kinds of people whose arrests these students are choosing to protest.

Austin high school students protesting ICE raids at the intersection of Rundberg and Lamar. pic.twitter.com/eUUHTmWNJn

— Brianna Stone (@bristone19) February 17, 2017

Students chanted, “We are the movement,” according to a report in the Austin American-Statesman. “We want the ICE raids to stop because they’re ruining families. It’s sad and unfair to see families get broken apart,” 16-year-old Lamar High School student Davis Ogbedie told reporters. “We might not change the law, but we’re standing up for ourselves and making a point.” He told the local newspaper the students were from high schools in Austin and Pflugerville. ICE officers arrested criminal aliens in both communities during the enforcement action.

“We are the movement” pic.twitter.com/40pVMparcv

— Brianna Stone (@bristone19) February 17, 2017

The students gathered at Rundberg Lane and Lamar Boulevard, the scene of several arrests and subsequent protests. They carried homemade signs that read, “Keep Families Together,” and “Blacks, Hispanics, Whites Unite Together.” No mention was made of the violent criminal arrested by ICE officers.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.