Protestors gather in front of the Regent Administrative Center during the rally at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
On Tuesday afternoon, a group of about 35 protestors, wielding homemade signs and dressed for the day’s sub-freezing temperatures, organized on the University of Colorado Boulder’s campus to advocate for immigrants’ rights.
Organizers originally planned the gathering to protest the presence of the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor – a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – at an on-campus law career fair CU held in conjunction with the University of Denver. The branch, which was slated to appear at Tuesday’s fair as a potential career option for post-graduate law students, represents the U.S. government in immigration court cases and provides legal advice to ICE officers and personnel.
OPLA pulled out of attending the fair ahead of the event. According to university spokesperson Christine Mahoney, OPLA chose not to attend the event, so their presence would not “detract from the intent of the career fair.”
Protestors still met Tuesday and marched from Kittredge Pond to the Regent Administrative Center, which houses many of the university’s administrative offices. With OPLA no longer attending the fair, they turned their attention to a different goal: demanding that the university declare itself a “sanctuary campus.”
A protestor holds up a sign during the rally at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
“We thought we’d take a hold of that momentum and just try to kick-start a campaign to apply some pressure to the administration here, just to protect its students – immigrant or not, illegal or not – all students,” said Davey, a law student and protestor who asked to be identified only by his first name due to concerns of retaliation.
The protestors made their way through campus, banging a drum, chanting slogans like “No justice, no peace, no ICE agents in Boulder streets,” and garnering the attention of passerby and some students who looked on from the warmth of their dormitory windows.
Protestors march through the University of Colorado Boulder campus during the rally on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
At the protest’s final destination, the Regent Administrative Center, participants asked the university to comply with a list of nine total demands.
The list of requests included providing distance-learning options for deported students to achieve their degrees and a guarantee that the university would not collect or share students’ immigration statuses with ICE.
Some of these nine demands have already been met or partially met. One demand asks that the university provide “confidential legal support for students facing immigration-related issues.” This is currently a resource available to students through the Colorado Law Immigration Center.
The university does not currently meet some of the other demands.
The protestors asked for “a total ban on ICE officers entering campus without a judicial warrant.” According to Nicole Mueksch, a spokesperson for the university, ICE officers can currently enter any areas on campus that are open to the general public.
This year would not have been OPLA’s first year attending a university career fair; the branch has attended similar events in the past. Davey said that, given President Trump’s promises to crack down on immigration, OPLA’s attendance at the fair felt more concerning to the protestors than it did under previous administrations.
“We don’t really feel like anything is sacred under a Trump presidency,” he said.
Protestors hold signs and march through the University of Colorado Boulder campus during the rally on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
Though OPLA ultimately did not attend the fair, Davey said their presence could have led to a normalization of ICE agents on campus, which was a key concern for many of the protestors.
“Whether it was an indication of future cooperation or not, we wanted to voice our opposition to that and just deal with it before it becomes a problem,” Davey said. “We don’t want to mourn students being dragged into the streets. We want to do something about it and try to prevent that.”
Contact CU Independent Editor-in-Chief Jessi Sachs at jessica.sachs@colorado.edu
Contact CU Independent Visuals Editor Clementine Miller at clementine.miller@colorado.edu
