Map Shows States Where ICE Protests Are Taking Place

Protests erupted across the country at the weekend, with people raising their voices against the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.

Thousands of people marched against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the second weekend since President Donald Trump took office, with the two largest demonstrations occurring in states that share a border with Mexico.

Why It Matters

Trump made immigration a central theme of his successful presidential campaign and Americans largely support his mass deportation plans.

A New York Times/Ipsos poll, carried out from January 2 to 10, found 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such plans. Eighty-eight percent supported “Deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records.” Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the immigration system is broken.

The president promised to remove 11.7 million undocumented people from the country. While removing undocumented people with criminal records is popular politically, deporting undocumented people who have built businesses and getting rid of birthright citizenship and Temporary Protected Status visas are all unpopular strategies for fixing the immigration system.

ICE agents have been picking up citizens including veterans and Native Americans, as part of their mass deportation raids, showing that the Trump administration is not being selective in who they are trying to deport.

What To Know

Protests against ICE took place over the weekend in California, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina.

The largest demonstrations over the weekend were in California and Texas. Thousands of people turned out in Los Angeles on Sunday to protest mass deportation, blocking the 101 Freeway downtown. Marchers chanted slogans such as “no one is illegal,” and “si se puede.”

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declared the demonstration to be “unlawful” at around 8 p.m. and started to use non-lethal weapons to break up the crowd.

Two protests occurred outside of Dallas City Hall on Sunday afternoon, as part of a national movement: “Legalization for all and an end to unjust immigration policies.” And, another protest happened in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday.

Demonstrators were marching against several Trump policies including getting rid of birthright citizenship, which civil rights groups have said is a violation of the 14th amendment, opening Guantanamo Bay as a holding center for deported individuals, and detaining undocumented people with jobs, as opposed to only deporting undocumented people with criminal records.

An Arizona city that borders Mexico declared a state of emergency following Trump’s immigration crackdown. Mayor Jose Grijalva of Douglas explained that his city relies on migrants for its economy, and without immigrants the town will need federal funds in order to function.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has said he will construct “family facilities” to house deported undocumented parents if they are removed from the country with their children and said the Pope should not speak out against U.S. deportation. Pope Francis has called the practice “disgraceful.”

The protests coincided with the beginning of Trump’s trade war against Mexico. The Trump administration has imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, which Trump believes will reduce the flow of fentanyl into the country and right a trade deficit imbalance.

Ray Perryman, CEO of financial analysis firm The Perryman Group, told Newsweek in November that tariffs could have a “disproportionate effect” on Texas due to its links with the Mexican economy and Mexican manufacturing.

What People Are Saying

Los Angeles protester Sara Aguilar told CBS: “We’re not criminals. We wanna work. A lot of people just wanna work, we all wanna provide. … I’m out here to represent for my people. I’m out here to be the voice for the people that have been silenced out of fear.”

California Senator Alex Padilla, a member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety: “All Americans will feel the impacts of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, creating chaos and fear in communities across our country, while also driving up costs for businesses and consumers. We can all agree that we need a secure and orderly border; however, these executive actions only further complicate that effort—and many of them violate the rights guaranteed by our Constitution. So make no mistake: it won’t be long before a policy of chaos costs the American people.”

Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, told her followers on social media: “The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept.”

What Happens Next

The Trump administration is being sued by civil rights groups for its attempts to remove birthright citizenship.

Further protests are likely as deportations continue.

Update 2/3/25, 10:13 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include protests in North Carolina and Arizona.