In the bitter cold, more than a thousand people rally in Providence for ‘ICE Out!’ protest – The Boston Globe

Amanda McCorkle also came to Providence from the southern part of the state and took her two children, Ada and Magnus Katter, out of school to participate in the “ICE Out! National Day of Action” protest

“It’s just too hard to ignore what’s happening right now,” McCorkle said.

“Stop killing people,” her daughter, 15-year-old Ada Katter, said. “Kids are seeing it, it’s hurtful, it’s scary.”

The rally turned into a march around downtown, blocking traffic at times, before returning to the State House. Families with small children were in attendance. Wind chills dipped into the single digits.

“Free our families, free them all,” one chant rang out. The protest drew more than 1,000 people and was peaceful. A Providence police spokesperson said no arrests were made as of 5 p.m.

Protests against ICE are being held nationwide on Friday and this weekend, as tensions reach a boiling point over the two killings. The Department of Justice earlier Friday said it was opening a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Pretti, but a similar investigation was not being opened in Good’s death.

Students from various Providence high schools and from Brown University also joined the protest Friday afternoon.

“We are here saying enough is enough,” said Dakota Pippins, a freshman at Brown. We’re not going to tolerate it anymore.” Pippins said students from Brown walked out of their classes to join the protest, which made its way up North Main Street toward the State House.

Students from URI, RISD, Johnson & Wales, Roger Williams, RIC, and CCRI also participated, he later confirmed, and student and graduate worker groups including the Deportation Defense Network, Brown Rise Up, Sunrise Brown, and the RI Student Climate Coalition worked together to coordinate the walkout.

“What people are really bothered by is the horrifying violence of it,” Pippins said, referencing the Pretti killing. “And just the fact that the highest officials in our nation would then call him a terrorist, an assassin, trying to murder people, when we have video evidence that so clearly refutes that, is just sickening.”

Manuel Urizar, a senior at Hope High School, said he walked out of school with around 50 other students. He said he has heard people say that protesting ICE is causing “unnecessary fear.”

“It’s not unnecessary where there is the possibility that anyone from our family, our friends … are just being taken off the streets,” Urizar said.

Matthew Muller marched with a massive inflatable orange whistle created by his Providence-based art studio Pneuhaus, a reference to the whistles used in Minneapolis to warn neighbors that ICE is nearby.

“People are intimidated to join the ICE watch, and I think inflatables are a playful way to get past the barriers that these political issues bring up,” Muller said.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley on Friday had just returned from a US Conference of Mayors meeting where he spoke to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, along with the mayors of Los Angeles and Portland, where major ICE enforcement actions have taken place.

“We’ve been so appalled and offended by the lawlessness that we’ve seen, and heartbroken by the harm that’s been done,” Smiley said.

He said there’s been a “tone and tactic shift” from many mayors, including himself, who initially sought to avoid drawing the attention of the Trump administration, for fear of being the next city targeted.

Now, he said, “enforcement priority locations seem to have nothing to do with anything other than political grudges or retribution from the administration, and so ‘keeping your head down’ maybe does, maybe doesn’t keep you off the hit list,” Smiley said.

He signed an executive order earlier this month barring ICE from using city property for its operations. The city has a separate ordinance barring police from helping ICE with civil immigration enforcement.

Smiley said the city’s emergency management agency has been preparing in case Providence is targeted by a major ICE enforcement.

There is no specific reason to believe Providence will be targeted, he said, “but there’s no reason to believe they were going to target Portland, Maine, either.”

State Representative David Morales, who is running against Smiley for mayor, said he was “terrified” that an immigration action could happen here.

“If I was mayor, we would be towing ICE vehicles out of our city any time they violate our sanctuary city laws,” Morales said.

Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com. Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her @StephMachado. Carlos Muñoz can be reached at carlos.munoz@globe.com. Follow him @ReadCarlos and on Instagram @Carlosbrknews.