Students at four universities in the nation’s capital are staging walkouts to protest Trump’s military policing surge.

 

Roughly 100 demonstrators crowded a plaza at Georgetown University on Tuesday with chants to “free D.C.” and keep federal immigration officers away from the private campus.

 

Emily Han, a Georgetown senior, said that students have seen federal agents patrolling near campus.

 

“And so were here to protest that and to demand that the deployment of the National Guard and the federalization of the local police department end immediately and that campus administrators also don't comply with the Trump administration,” Han said.

 

Speakers called on Congress to end the deployment of National Guard troops in the city and urged university leaders not to cooperate with federal law enforcement

 

Students at Howard University staged a similar demonstration, and others were scheduled at George Washington University and American University.

 

Cyrus Hampton, a Howard University alumni turned professor, said that students are exercising their right to free speech and are being interrupted by police forces.

 

“And my hope is that despite the precarity of Howard University, that our leaders will likewise stand with our students, will protect them, and will follow in the footsteps of our colleagues in not letting illegal violence be done to our students,” he said.