Hundreds of UC Santa Barbara students and community members participated in a walkout and march on campus Wednesday afternoon to protest immigration enforcement activity in Santa Barbara.
Speakers criticized recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, the Trump administration and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. Protesters also demanded that the university prohibit ICE activity in certain spaces and establish emergency funds for students who have been deported or detained.
The crowd, estimated at 400 to 500, was one of the largest seen at UCSB in recent years, compared with other campus protests and marches. The crowd gathered at noon at the Eternal Flame monument, where speakers spoke about recent ICE activity.
An unidentified speaker said that since the start of 2025, more than 1,600 people have been picked up by ICE in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties, with 600 of those people from Santa Barbara.
“Think about the families,” the speaker said. “Look around and see every face that is here and understand that if you look like me, my family, like the families of a lot of our communities, we’d all be taken.”
The crowd held a moment of silence to mourn community members taken by ICE, burned sage, and held hands while listening to a song in Spanish that the speaker said he listens to every time he witnesses an ICE arrest.
“Today, we are here for the families,” the speaker said. “Today, we are here for the people that cannot stand here with us. Every single day, ICE is terrorizing our community.”
The crowd marched from the Eternal Flame to Cheadle Hall, which houses campus administrative offices. Along the way, the crowd repeated several chants, such as, “No justice, no peace, no ICE in our streets,” and “From Palestine to Mexico, all these walls have got to go.”
Outside Cheadle Hall, organizers passed out slips of paper with a QR code that led to a petition listing several demands for university leadership.
The demands include prohibiting immigration enforcement from private rooms in the library, Multicultural Center and other campus spaces, establish an emergency fund for students detained or deported, hire a response team to keep in communication with students detained or deported, notify the community of suspected ICE activity on campus, and provide a housing contract for undocumented students during their enrollment.
The crowd then marched across campus to Storke Tower Plaza, where speakers criticized Trump and his administration for his criminal record of 34 felonies and for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
At one point, someone in the crowd shouted, “He should be assassinated,” while someone else in the crowd shouted, “He should be killed,” evoking cheers from the rest of the crowd.
Protesters repeated chats such as “Abolish ICE” and denouncing President Trump.
Speakers also criticized the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, calling the office “vocal supporters of ICE.”
The protest ended with speakers encouraging the crowd to get involved with immigrant rights organizations and join the 805 Rapid Response Network.
The walkout was promoted on social media sites such as Instagram by several accounts such as @ice_out_of_goleta and @immigrationstudentcoalition_ucsb.
