A student-led group called Pullman Resistance led a “March for Justice” to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday, drawing students and community members to downtown Pullman.

Students staged a walkout from classes at 2 p.m. to begin the march through campus, carrying anti-ICE and Trump administration-themed signs. Marchers traveled downtown via Northeast College Street, ending at Cougar Plaza, where more protesters were waiting to join the demonstration.

About 100 people chanted and cheered while waving signs as vehicles passed on South Grand Avenue.

At the helm of the event’s organization was Shae Ortega, a WSU graduate student pursuing a doctorate in political philosophy focused on environmental and Indigenous rights.

“I was expecting a low turnout because it’s a Tuesday, but this is really good,” Ortega said.

Ortega has helped organize protests in Pullman since Presidents’ Day 2025. She said she hopes to highlight local resilience and encourage more community involvement, one picket sign at a time.

“I come from an immigrant Filipino family, and I grew up in an immigrant community,” Ortega said. “I have watched the harassment build up over the years, and it has not gotten better. It has gotten significantly worse.”

Ortega told The Evergreen about a time a family member was wrongfully detained by ICE agents near the Kansas City area in 2019.

“My aunt, who had been on a legal U.S. visa for over 30 years, was detained and kept for 48 hours without food or water,” Ortega said. “They kept her even with major health complications, and they deported her to a country we are not even from. And people still did not believe me when I was like, this is really bad.”

Protesters remained until sundown, when a candlelight vigil was held for Renee Good, a woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota on Jan. 7.

“ICE is justifying all of these ways of hurting others for the benefit of a few,” Ortega said. “Democracy is not democracy unless you participate.”