Despite continuous rain, nearly 30 people gathered in the Ithaca Commons on Sunday to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and condemn a string of recent deaths linked to ICE activity.
The “ICE OUT” rally, organized by several local organizations, including the Ithaca Club of the Communist Party USA, Finger Lakes branch of the Party For Socialism and Liberation and Cornell Graduate Students United, was announced on Friday in response to the death of Linda Davis, a special-education teacher from Savannah, G.A.. Davis was killed on Feb. 16 after a man fleeing ICE agents crashed a car into her vehicle.
Standing beneath Bernie Milton Pavilion, protesters sought refuge from the weather as they listened to speeches, held banners and chanted slogans such as “F*ck ICE” and “Not tomorrow, now!”
Several cars passing by honked in solidarity. One individual shouted their support for ICE from a moving vehicle.
Sunday’s rally was the second demonstration against federal immigration authorities to occur in Ithaca’s downtown in the past month. Another anti-ICE protest took place on Cornell’s campus on Feb. 6.
Compared to both prior protests, Sunday’s event was notably smaller. The first “ICE OUT” rally on Jan. 31 brought in over 300 local demonstrators and students in coordination with marches across the country, while the Feb. 6 protest was attended by over 100 students. Both were organized in response to the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents at a demonstration in Minneapolis.
For Sam Scott, a member of Ithaca CPUSA and an organizer with the Ithaca chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the difference in turnout reflected a bias in the media coverage of her death.
“Women of color like Linda Davis are often disproportionately under-represented in the media and in protests when tragic and horrific things happen to them,” Scott said in an interview with The Sun.
Another speaker, Mona Sulzman, a local activist and member of the Finger Lakes Region PSL, told the crowd that in order to act against ICE, size and solidarity mattered.
“Our movement to end ICE must grow,” Sulzman said.
Protestors at February's second anti-ICE rally endured rainy conditions on Sunday.
At the over-hour-long rally, speakers discussed actions by immigration authorities across the nation and close to home. One speaker referenced a vehicular crash in Geneva, N.Y. that led to three ICE arrests on Friday. After the event, rallygoers were urged by speakers to sign up and get involved with the organizing groups.
Among the groups that presented was the Ithaca Regional Rapid Response Network, an organization that tracks and responds to ICE activity in the area.
Kady Nawrocki, a representative of Ithaca Rapid Response, described to the crowd how the network staffs a 24/7 phone hotline that fields tips, investigates rumors of ICE sightings and is prepared to respond to active ICE raids and document the event.
In an interview with The Sun after the event, Nawrocki declined to give specifics about the organization’s size and other logistics out of concern for the safety of the group, but re-emphasized the Ithaca Rapid Response’s mission.
“I think it's important for folks to be aware that we exist, so that the hotline can be called when needed,” Nawrocki said. “Because we do believe that if we can work together and organize, that we can fight back against ICE.”
Benjamin Leynse is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at bleynse@cornellsun.com.
