In recent weeks, Fort Worth, Texas, has become a focal point for protests against President Donald Trump’s intense immigration policies. On Sunday, January 26th, a community gathered at Trinity Park and walked to the center of Downtown Fort Worth to express their voices over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This was the beginning for ongoing public protest in North Texas. There have been various protests all throughout DFW following this event and there are more to come.
Photo provided by Tori Sky
Photo provided by Tori Sky.
Since his election, Donald Trump has pushed the “Trump Act,” an act of mass deportation in specific areas of the U.S. According to USA Today, “After taking office, Trump ordered military and immigration officials to be ready by February 3rd to implement the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, last used to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II.”
This response is part of a broader wave of distress across North Texas, with residents voicing concerns over the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that ultimately will separate families. The recent enactment of one of the factors in the Trump Act, which mandates federal detention for undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes, has intensified public outcry.
In response to these policies, students in Fort Worth, specifically our Paschal Panthers, have participated in the local protests, highlighting the community’s apprehension about the increased presence and actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the area.
Photo provided by Tori Sky
Paschal students and high schoolers throughout the DFW are coming together to fight back against the stern executive order. North Texas is enriched with cultures from all over the world, and we as a student body, not only for FWISD but for the state, will support, push, and preserve.
The Trump administration’s decision to utilize Guantanamo Bay as a detention center for up to 30,000 migrants has further fueled the protests. Critics argue that these measures not only undermine human rights but also instill fear within immigrant communities, leading many to alter their daily routines to avoid potential detention. The US has already been using a facility in Guantanamo–known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC)–for decades and through various administrations, both Republican and Democrat. According to the BBC, “In a 2024 report, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) accused the government of secretly holding migrants there in ‘inhumane’ conditions indefinitely after detaining them at sea.” According to Trump, the facility will double the US capacity to hold undocumented migrants.
As the situation evolves, Fort Worth and its neighboring cities continue to witness a surge in activism, reflecting the community’s deep concerns over the federal government’s immigration policies and their local impact.
Christina Balch | Mar 30, 2025 at 4:06 pm
I appreciate the article “Editorial: A Panther’s Opinion on the New Immigration Policy” by Tori Sky. As a former student of Pascal High School in my 9th and 10th grade years in 1990-91 and 1991-92, I was curious about the history of the school it’s current status, and was happy to find an article challenging the immigration policy of the 47th president. The current presidents executive orders regarding immigration, and the growing number of arrests of legal permanent residents who have not been accused of any crime, is very alarming. It is important to maintain our civil liberties and citizenship rights in the United States such as the right to free speech and the right to vote, to maintain our democracy. It is important to treat people humanely, instead of detaining and incarcerating immigrants in private detention centers in abysmal conditions (primarily in Geo-Group owned private prisons in Louisiana, but also now abroad in a Super Max prison in El Salvador and Guantanamo, which is illegal under US and international law). Broad support exists today for maintaining our societies constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of assembly, the right to protest – whether one is a citizen or a legal permanent resident. We must be vigilant in challenging these threats to our democracy, no matter our views on immigration or the content of individual speech of individuals who have been detained, such as Mahmoud Khalil and unfortunately a growing number of individuals. He has not committed or been charged with a crime, but is now in detention in a Louisiana prison for his role in the Columbia University protests last year which called for a cease fire in Gaza. You can read about the conditions there on the ACLU website, which has a report on them titled The Black Hole. The president is trying to deport him, but has been blocked by the courts, since that is illegal. While I didn’t graduate from Pascal High School, I am today a high school teacher and have been for 26 years. And I commend and support the journalist Tori Sky for her brave and excellent reporting on this matter. We need young people who are willing to put pen to paper and speak truth to power. Free and independent media is essential to a thriving democracy, but this right is another right the Trump administration wants to overturn, and they will do it if they get the Supreme Court to overturn New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the case that protects young citizen journalists like Tori Sky, and anyone who makes a comment online, or writes an article for the New York Times etc, from being sued for defamation. So someone needs to write an article about that! As James Baldwin said, “You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” And he meant much more than having good punctuation – he meant we must confront the denial in our society that racial oppression exists, that sexism and homophobia exist and are destructive and hurtful, and unfortunately, we must also confront the destruction of our basic democratic rights and institutions in the name of “immigration reform” that is profoundly racist and harmful to the health and well being of immigrants, our rights, our communities and our economy. We can see now that we have a lot more work to do so that everyone knows that each life and person is sacred and has a right to life, dignity, health and freedom. We all, and especially our youth and families, deserve so much better. I realize this comment may be too long to post, but I hope that at least Tori Sky gets to read it. It inspires me to know that a brave voice such as hers can be heard at Pascal High School today.