This story was first posted Jan. 31 and updated Feb. 2
Three days of protest in Chico began with Jan. 30 student walkouts to protest immigration enforcement tactics. And the culmination was a Feb. 1 candlelight vigil organized by local nurses and their national union to honor people who have been killed by federal agents.
The vigil drew at least 200 protesters who lined the Esplanade across from Enloe Medical Center, many wearing red and some carrying signs paying tribute to Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
Tori Johnson, an Enloe nurse who participated in the vigil, called Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing an execution, noting that he was shot while trying to protect a woman who was “being pushed to the ground.”
“It’s really scary,” Johnson said of the immigration enforcement underway nationwide. “Especially living in a community with a lot of Hispanic immigrants. We would hate to see a lot of our patients here feel scared to go to the hospital, to go out in public. I’m afraid that they’re scared to speak up.”
The candlelight vigil was organized by the National Nurses United union, which says it’s the largest RN union in the country. The union’s website says that it’s holding a week of action to “demand that Congress vote to immediately abolish this violent, racist, and lawless agency.”
“ICE messed with the wrong profession,” the union states.
Jan. 31 protest in south Chico
Organizers said that between 1,000 and 2,000 people showed up for a “Day of Remembrance” protest on East 20th Street.
“America has awoken,” said Kate McCracken, an organizer who works with Re-Sisters and other local groups, noting that there have been many deaths in immigration detention centers — as well as the New Year’s Eve killing of Keith Porter, Jr. in Los Angeles — since Trump took office. “It wasn’t just Renee and Alex getting murdered. People are just sick of it. They’re just tired of this going on.”
Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025. The Guardian reports that another eight people have either been killed by federal agents or died while in detention so far in 2026.
The Chico protest attracted many students and some families as demonstrations were underway in cities across the nation.
Protesters stood on the ramp to the 20th Street Kristina Chesterman bike bridge and packed the bridge. They lined both sides of 20th Street from the Chico Mall to Forest Avenue. (Photos courtesy of Karen Laslo.)
Leslie Layton is editor of ChicoSol.
Right on. Hold the Line. We can’t lose our momentum now.
It was so great to see the younger generation fired up and participating. Our youth are smart and they see what is happening.
Glad to see the big turn out and media coverage.
I am very appreciative to see the article written to be clear that this was a protest designed to honor and mourn all the victims of Ice violence, not just the two white victims who many people relate to as the impetus for the most recent anti-Ice uprisings. And thanks to the makers of signs that day, for bringing the names and realities of the too many victims of immigration abuses that are not making it into mainstream media. And wow, thanks to the nurses. It’s always good when the nurses get riled up!