CU Students hold “useless” Protest

   The so-called “United States” saw mass protests and a general strike initiated by labor unions and community leaders on Jan 30 in response to the killing of two white protestors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including one at CU Boulder. Sophia Grossman, a junior in aerospace engineering, planned this walkout and march at 1:30 p.m. in the UMC Fountain Court. Boulder Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) later planned a protest on the same date, time and location.

This march gathered together a large number of CU student protestors, many of whom were upset at ICE and recent killings. This sort of mobilization on the CU campus hasn’t been seen in years, but some student organizers on campus feel this sort of action is “useless and a waste of energy,” as stated by one protestor at the action.

Grossman’s protest had no demands other than “ICE OUT,” as stated on her flyer, which was heavily promoted by Roam Boulder, a fashion and lifestyle magazine. YDSA has demands for CU to stop collaborating with ICE-aiding Key Lime Air, but these demands were not voiced at the protest. Fellow organizer Isabella Consentino, another engineering major, went as far as to announce that the issue was “not political, but a human rights issue.” Another protestor said in a CU Independent interview that the public can’t “fight [ICE] physically, but [they] can fight with words, with getting educated, and with staying together.”

Many of the protest’s attendees started chanting “sko buffs” near the end of the protest in seeming blissful ignorance, despite the school’s connections to the ICE-collaborating Key Lime Air and its pursuance of multiple genocides in Turtle Island and Palestine.

The university has been collaborating with Key Lime Air for athletic-team travel since 2011 and has been contracted through 2029. CU Boulder pays Key Lime Air money they then use to fly deportation and detainee-transfer routes for ICE. CU Boulder also refuses to declare the campus a sanctuary campus, despite pressure and calls from undocumented and ally students.