LEWISTON — It was bitter cold and blowing Friday afternoon, but Evelyn Lenhert wouldn’t have dreamed of missing the march.
She feels too passionately about it. She’s too concerned about the prospect of ICE taking away her classmates and their families.
“I’m out here,” the Lewiston High School freshman said, “because I fear for the safety of my friends. ICE could come at any second and I’m just very scared about it.”
Lenhert was one of several dozen students who made the march from the high school down to Kennedy Park.
Beginning at the end of classes at about 2 p.m., the group of about 60 began their march, holding up signs and stopping now and then to chant at passing traffic.
“No justice, no peace,” they chanted, “get ICE off the streets!”
The group moved quickly, from the school football fields, down Birch Street and toward the heart of downtown. They were unified by a single purpose: to let it be known that the students of Lewiston High School are not OK with federal agents coming to their city, which they say is creating fear and mayhem.
“They’re taking away people who don’t deserve to be taken,” said Madeline Card, also a freshman. “I’m scared for my friends, I’m scared for my community and I don’t like it.”
Luke Horn is a junior at Leavitt Area High School in Turner, but he came to Lewiston to join in the protest because he felt it’s an important cause.
“I’m out here to stand for people who can’t stand for themselves,” Horn said, making his way carefully along a snow-narrowed sidewalk. “I’m here to support those people who can’t come out to be a part of this.”
Students in other Maine communities and across the country have been walking out of class in recent days to voice their concerns about ICE operations, which federal authorities say have resulted in more than 200 arrests in Maine through the last two weeks.
In Lewiston, opposition to ICE has been heavy. As the high school students marched through the downtown Wednesday afternoon, another group was waiting for them in Kennedy Park.
The second group, about two-dozen strong, was there to support the students in their protests.
Julita Jackson stood in the park, enduring biting cold, to see her own child marching in from the high school.
“As a Puerto Rican descendant, I’m here to support the kids and also to support myself as a minority,” Jackson said. “We’re just exercising our rights. We’ve got to teach these kids their rights while they’re young.”
Next to Jackson was Erika Lopez, there to cheer on her daughter in the march. In spite of the 15-degree temperature, Lopez wore only a hooded sweatshirt with sleeves pulled up to the elbow.
“We’re born and raised here,” Lopez said. “The cold doesn’t bother us.”
As the kids marched through the streets, passing motorists honked car horns to encourage the already energetic marchers. A few motorists pulled to the sides of snow-clogged streets to watch the procession and shout their words of support.
Jackson, in Kennedy Park, said part of the reason she came out for the march is to see that everything was conducted smoothly and peacefully.
She was happy to see that there were no problems — no counter protests or people trying to interfere with the procession.
After reaching Kennedy Park, the score of students paused to meet with those who came to greet them. Together, the two groups chanted and held their signs high.
“Lewiston loves immigrants,” one sign declared.
“Over-armed, under-trained, ICE kills,” read another.
A megaphone was passed around so that each student to voice a thought or two about why they had come out.
One student said she was particularly inflamed by the presence of ICE in large part because her own mother was an immigrant. Her mother lived in fear while federal agents were here, she said, but still managed to reach out and help others.
Others offered short but stinging declarations, some of them aimed at those who remain indifferent to the ICE operations in Lewiston.
“If you don’t care,” one teenager girl shouted into the megaphone, “you’re not paying attention!”
That remark, like all others, was met by hearty applause, whistles and shouts of agreement.
At the end of the event, the students began drifting away, headed for rides or walking back toward the school.
All in all, the Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said, it was a impressive affair.
“Attempts to divide our city are not working,” he said. “Lewiston stands strong because community is our backbone. Our unity is our strength. And you are all a part of that…
“And a huge round of applause for all of you for exercising your first amendment rights,” the mayor said. “There is a reason that the First Amendment is first! If we can’t have free speech, nothing else matters.”