Jevonne Thorpe

The protests featured speakers ranging from young adults passionate about change to a civil rights activist who lived through segregation.

As tensions rise and ICE agents become more prominent throughout the country, protestors gathered in front of Hattiesburg’s city hall this past Friday to stand in solidarity and protest against ICE and the current administration’s immigration policies.

Attendee Hannah Grubbs said it was important for her to show up to the protest.

“So, I grew up believing that it’s important to love your neighbors, to love everybody, and treat them the same, and this administration is not doing that.”

Grubbs continued, “And it’s so important for me to show up and let people know that they’re wanted here, and that there are those of us here in the south that will stand up and fight for them.”

According to the Guardian, 32 people died in ICE custody. This has been considered ICE’s “deadliest year in two decades.” Immigration lawyer Richard T. Herman of the Herman Legal Group says that ICE agents have also detained United States citizens “most often due to database mismatches, biographical collisions (name/date of birth), outdated records, or algorithmic false positives.”

Leonardo García Venegas, a U.S.-born citizen, had been wrongfully arrested by immigration agents twice and sued the federal government in 2025. Venegas’ construction site had been raided by immigration officers first in May, and then two weeks later, he was arrested again. According to an interview with ABC News, “Venegas claims he told officers he was a citizen and showed them his REAL ID, an identification card only issued only to citizens and lawful residents, the lawsuit said.”

Lauryn Spell, a junior history major at USM, says that she couldn’t sit by and do nothing with everything going on in the country.

“It’s not okay to treat people the way that our government has been treating them,” Spell said. “To detain people for the color of their skin and to attack people in the streets standing up for those people. I can’t sit by and do nothing while that’s happening in our country.”

Co-organizers Sophia Williams and Davy of the Hattiesburg Alternative Zine organizied this protest because it was important to them and their organizations.

“Being here for me means demanding the America that was promised to us,” Davy said. “When we were children growing up in the south, we were made to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, right? Every single day, we would put our tiny hands on top of our tiny hearts, and we would recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Davy continued by saying that it was a promise of an America with liberty and justice for all, and they were there to collect on that promise.

Williams said, “We’re out here in response to the recent events. You know, the lack of accountability for law enforcement has been going on. (There are) these moments where people see what’s going on, and we come out here to get together with people who are starting to like, wake up to the violence that this country perpetrates upon, you know, people internationally and in their own communities.”

The protests featured speakers ranging from young adults passionate about change to a civil rights activist who lived through segregation. Many protests are still happening across the country, protesting against ICE and the current administration and its policies.