Santa Fe Students Walk Out to Protest ICE Immigration Arrests
On October 22, 2026, approximately 430 students across seven Santa Fe schools walked out of class around lunchtime to protest recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, accepting unexcused absences to voice their opposition, Searchlight New Mexico reported.
Santa Fe Students Walk Out Over Recent Federal Immigration Arrests
The student-led demonstration brought participants to the parking lot of the Santa Fe Place mall, carrying signs and displaying hybrid Mexican and American flags. Leonardo Ramirez decorated his car with a hybrid flag as a few dozen mostly south-side students gathered. Some participants danced and chanted, while Ortiz Middle School sixth-grader Giselle Garcia held a sign stating, “Ice should be in our drinks not in our cities.” Garcia said the walkout was intended to support immigrants and to “stop ICE and to try our best to abolish it.”
Organizers and participants mobilized quickly via Instagram following a series of federal immigration enforcement actions in the area. Last week, federal agents raided a Santa Fe housing construction site and made multiple arrests. In August, enforcement agents detained other individuals, including a resident who was jailed for weeks while taking his daughter to a health clinic. The resident was a legal resident.
Capital High School junior J.J. Luévano organized one of the student groups after seeing news of the construction site raids. “We need to do something; we need to solve this,” she stated. Luévano added, “We’re not aliens. We’re Mexicans, we’re Latinos, we’re Hispanic. We are all people here.”
Luévano coordinated with students at three other south-side schools after speaking with her mother, Miriam Luévano, a community development coordinator for Earth Care. Separately, Santa Fe High School senior Genoveva Zuniga used a different account to mobilize students from the east side. Zuniga and Luévano collaborated via messaging despite not having met previously. Zuniga said she had to check on a family friend in construction after the raids, and she rejected stereotypes that Hispanics and immigrants are “stealing jobs.”
Santa Fe Public Schools Prioritize Student Safety
Santa Fe Public Schools issued a statement emphasizing that student safety remains a priority and asserting that schools are the safest place for students during the day. The district stated the protest “was not initiated or promoted” by the school system. District officials noted that leaving campus without authorization results in unexcused absences unless parents or guardians call in to excuse the absence.
On Tuesday, the district emailed students warning that those leaving campus without following procedures would be marked with an unexcused absence. Zuniga posted this email to her Instagram page. District spokesperson Joe Abeyta noted that some students, including 85 of the 105 who left Milagro Middle School, returned to class later in the day.
During the walkout, the Santa Fe Police Department monitored the movement using a drone operated through the Real Time Operations Center. Interim Police Chief Ben Valdez reported that officers tracked the participants to ensure traffic remained unobstructed and that no safety concerns arose during the demonstration.
Students Express Fear over Family Separation
Students voiced personal stakes in the enforcement actions. Seventh-grade Milagro Middle School student Amaris Ortiz declared, “We’ve got to support our people who belong here.” Another seventh-grader, Mateo Garcia, expressed fear regarding family separation, noting he was born in the United States. “I feel like it’s bad for them to take my family, because I was born here,” Garcia said. He added that President Donald Trump “has no right” to remove innocent people “out of a land that promised them good stuff.”