Elyjah Bleak, 13, said it hurts to see the videos showing last weekend’s violence involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota, far away from Utah.
“Mentally and physically, it doesn’t sit right for me,” they said.
That feeling motivated Bleak, a student at Brockbank STEM Junior High in Magna, to help organize a statewide student walkout Tuesday to protest ICE. Students at Brockbank STEM and at least three high schools across Salt Lake County participated.
Elyjah said they were part of a video shared on social media last week rallying students to the cause.
“No one is illegal on stolen land,” Elyjah told The Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday. “If we could abolish ICE, let’s do it.”
Elyjah said about a dozen Brockbank STEM students joined the walkout. At another Granite School District school — Kearns High, a few miles southeast — hundreds more participated.
The Kearns High students left the school at about 1 p.m., chanting “Defund ICE!” — referring to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and raising posters as they marched down a nearby street.
The Kearns students walked down 5400 South before turning onto 4015 West and arriving in Stan’s Market’s parking lot, where they gave speeches. They were reportedly asked to leave a short time later.
In a statement, Granite School District spokesperson Luke Allen said he believed between 200 and 300 students participated at Kearns. The district predicted that the protest would likely continue until the end of the school day at 2:10 p.m.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that schools must respect our students’ First Amendment rights and their desire to express their views on issues that matter to them,” Allen said in a statement. “Our top priority in these situations is maintaining a safe and supportive leanring environment for all students and staff.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tuesday, Jan 27, 2026.
An Instagram post announced a walkout Tuesday at Jordan High School in Sandy. A spokesperson for Canyons School District confirmed Tuesday that dozens of students left the school at about 1 p.m. “to participate in an off-campus protest.”
Students at Bingham High School, in the Jordan School District, left their school, holding signs calling for ICE agents to leave Utah, KSL reported.
Jordan School District spokesperson Doug Flagler told The Tribune that because the protest was student-organized and students took the demonstration off of school property, the district didn’t track the number of students who participated.
“We have nothing to do with it, really,” he said. “I’ve been in the district seven years, and I haven’t seen anything like this before.”
The protests came three days after Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. In the days following his death, Utahns protested in downtown Salt Lake City and Park City.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students from Kearns High school march down Cougar Blvd during a walk-out Ice protest on Tuesday, Jan 27, 2026.
Over the weekend, the owners of a west Salt Lake City warehouse announced that they had no intention of selling their building to the federal government. A rumor had spread that the warehouse was being considered for a new ICE detention center.
At a Salt Lake County Council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jenny Wilson, a Democrat, said she doesn’t support an expansion of ICE operations in Utah and called on the federal government to notify local officials about its plans. She also criticized the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement campaign in Minnesota, calling it an overreach.
An ICE spokesperson sent a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, which read in part, “we have no new detention centers to announce at this time.”
Tribune deputy enterprise editor Sean P. Means and reporter Jose Davila IV contributed to this article.