Apple Valley High School Students Walk Out Of Class To Protest ICE

By Alyssa Chen, Minnesota Reformer

December 15, 2025

Over 100 students at Apple Valley High School walked out of class on Monday afternoon to protest federal immigration actions in the Twin Cities metro area.

Freshman Berk Benson, the protest’s organizer, led the crowd of teens in chants — “What do we want? Due process! When do we want it? Now!” — and gave a speech to cheering students at the 2 p.m. walkout, half an hour before the end of the school day.

“I stand up for our neighbors. Whether they’re from Mexico, whether they’re from Somalia, whether they’re from Venezuela,” Benson said, with students behind him flying the flags of those countries along with the American flag. “No matter where they’re from, if you are here, you are on American soil and you are guaranteed the same rights and the same due process that everybody here is guaranteed.”

Several students at the protest said they were worried for their families amid intensified federal immigration activity in recent weeks that has especially targeted Minnesota’s Somali-American community.

Freshmen Furqan Ali, Hamza Ismail and Almis Doualeh, all Somali-American students, said ICE is overstepping.

“I saw Trump’s claims online about how Somalis are bad,” said Ali. “I think we’re hard workers. I’ve known a lot of Somali hard workers. All of my family are in the workforce and everything. I just don’t think those claims are true.”

Though Ali is a U.S. citizen, he said his parents are concerned for his safety. Ismail and Doualeh nodded in agreement. ICE agents have reportedly detained U.S. citizens, including twice last week in the Twin Cities.

“Now I’m less able to go out and stuff because my mom is very worried about ICE taking me away from them,” Ali said.

Senior Kate Soledad Sanchez carried a sign that read “Mis Padres Trabajan Mas Duro Que Tu Presidente” — “My parents work harder than your president.”

Sanchez teared up as she talked about her immigrant parents and the challenges they went through to come to the U.S. from Mexico.

“I personally didn’t think it would become this serious, where ICE is literally everywhere,” Sanchez said.

Sophomore Liliana Oliveras, holding a sign that read “No one is illegal on stolen land,” said she was protesting ICE “because they’ve been taking innocent people.”

Oliveras said that her father, a U.S. citizen whose family is from Puerto Rico, was almost detained by ICE a few months ago.

ICE agents, under the Trump administration, have been accused of violating the constitutional rights of immigrants and American citizens. They have used munitions including pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters — including in the Twin Cities — resulting in injuries.

Students in nearby Burnsville walked out of classes to protest ICE last week.

Berk Benson, the organizer of an ICE walkout and protest at Apple Valley High School, is cheered on by students taking a selfie Monday Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by Alyssa Chen/Minnesota Reformer)

Benson, 15, said that he organized the walkout to energize resistance to ICE here.

“We’re told our whole lives about American ideals like liberty and justice, but then when you see our government doing stuff like this — like I am a high schooler and I can see that that’s hypocritical,” Benson said after the walkout.

Benson said his friend’s apartment was raided by ICE recently, which partly inspired him in addition to due process violations.

“You have to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves or are too scared to stand up for themselves,” he said, adding that some of his friends were too scared to come to the protest.

Nick Benson, Berk Benson’s father, is a longtime planespotter and has observed deportation flights since before President Donald Trump’s second term. He’s been speaking against federal immigration activity as part of Minnesota 50501, which has organized No Kings protests against Trump.

Nick Benson said he cried with pride when the principal of Apple Valley High School told him over email his son was planning to organize a protest against ICE.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..