Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands demonstrated, students walked out of class and some businesses shut their doors Friday around Utah to protest the crackdown on illegal immigration by federal agents around the country.
"It's good to see everyone come together," Mariah Castro said at a demonstration at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City, which drew thousands.Kimberly Barron echoed that, saying the immigrant community has seemed to be garner little support."No one else is standing up for us," she said, noting the fear of many of her immigrant family members. "We can't leave our house."The Pioneer Park demonstration was one of many planned for Friday up and down the Wasatch Front by critics of the immigration crackdown, part of a national day of protesting. Around 150 students at Bountiful High School walked out of class for a 35-minute protest along Orchard Drive in front of the school — one of many demonstrations by high school students in Utah."We're just trying to make our voices heard," said John Alley, a Bountiful High junior who helped lead the demonstration. "Even though we're not really affected too much here, we believe that we should be standing up for those that aren't able to stand up for themselves."Like others, he referenced the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration agents earlier this month, lamenting their deaths and the violent turn of the federal immigration crackdown in places like Minnesota. Utah high school students walked out of class, people demonstrated in Salt Lake City and some businesses closed early on Friday to protest the federal immigration crackdown. The sign was on the door at Central Book Exchange in Salt Lake City. Indra Meza, another Bountiful High student, isn't opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials going after criminals, but she worries about them going too far. "I agree that we're trying to get drug dealers or any bad people who immigrated here just trying to do bad things. Yes, we should get them out. But families who are just trying to make a living, we should help them," she said, noting the difficulties her uncle from Peru has faced in securing paperwork to stay in the country.In the Sugar House section of Salt Lake City, some businesses closed for the day on Friday or closed down early as a show of solidarity with the protesters and the push against the immigrant crackdown,
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