Over 700 community members gathered for a “May Day” rally organized by Resistencia en Acción New Jersey on May 1, joining thousands across the globe protesting the Trump administration’s crackdowns on immigration, the war between Israel and Hamas, and diminishing worker rights. The rally was co-sponsored by Princeton Mutual Aid, American Friends Service Committee, CAIR, National Education Association, Semilla Roja, Black Lives Matter, and the People’s Organization for Progress.
Held on International Workers’ Rights Day, the protest at Princeton began at the Fountain of Freedom in front of the School of Public and International Affairs at 6 p.m. and concluded around two and a half hours later at the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church.
In a press release from April 22, Resistencia en Acción said that the some of the major demands they would be calling for at the protest were no’s to “fascism,” “exploitation of workers’ rights,” “detentions and deportations,” and “genocide.”
The crowd, which primarily consisted of people unaffiliated with the University, included members of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Princeton, Ice Out of Princeton, and several University professors. Princeton town police were present to monitor the area.
“It was really inspiring to see community workers — Brown, Black, White — come together for International Workers Rights Day, in sync for the injustices that are happening right now,” Resistencia Director Ana Paola Pazmiño said in an interview following the rally.
Pazmiño explained that many community members are “in fear of being detained,” especially following the imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in an El Salvador prison after being mistakenly deported. “[Kilmar] was a union member, not a gang member, and we are fighting for him,” Pazmiño said.
“We advocated for the safety of our community members regardless of documentation status, for an end to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and for an end to the disproportionate police violence affecting Black and Brown communities,” Thomas Coulouras ’25, an organizer with Resistencia en Acción, wrote to The Daily Princetonian.
The protest began at 6 p.m. with speeches at the Freedom Fountain outside of Robertson Hall.
Around 6:50 p.m., the crowd began marching through campus and downtown Princeton, traveling alongside Washington Road, Nassau Street, Witherspoon Street, and Hulfish Street, circling Palmer Square Plaza.
During the march, several unidentified people in bullet-proof vests were present. Participants were also seen carrying an Antifa flag and wearing related apparel.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., the group paused on the Palmer Square lawn to hear from multiple speakers.
“We stand here to say that immigrant rights are human rights,” Lawrence Hamm ’78 said. “The struggle of the Palestinian people, the struggle of our immigrant brothers and sisters, the struggle of black people against racism in this country, and the struggle of the working class for a decent life is all one struggle.”
Calling for the abolition of Immigration Customs and Enforcement and an end to mass deportation, Hamm added, “A human being in the White House will try to criminalize them [immigrants], but I’m here to tell you the real criminals are in the White House.”
“What we must also do is what Dr. King told us, and that is to transform his whole system from top to bottom,” Hamm concluded.
Jordan Lewis, district director for Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, addressed the crowd, sharing that the representative is currently in Washington, D.C. fighting “tooth and nail” for immigrant rights.
“Don’t just stop in New Jersey. Reach out to Florida. Reach out to every state that you know someone and get them involved, whether it’s making a phone call, sending letters. We are here for you, from your senator to your Congress member to your councilmember. But we’re here for working people that just want to make it to the next day,” Lewis said.
Also among the speakers was Mahmoud Desouky, who is running for the New Jersey State Assembly LD-16, who urged the crowd to support the Immigration Trust Act.
In an interview with the ‘Prince’ after the event, Paulo Almiron, a community member, expressed concern about the current presidential administration’s treatment of immigrants.
“If we assume that in past years, that previous administrations have been treating undocumented immigrants and low-income workers like garbage, now we can say for sure that they are treating them like sub-humans in this administration,” Almiron said. “The proof of it, probably the biggest one of them all, is the lack of due process and in deporting people who have no proof of being criminals, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”
When asked about the identity of the crowd members present who were wearing bulletproof vests, Almiron said that he “didn’t know anything about that.”
Almiron also shared with the ‘Prince’ that approximately 500–800 posters had been torn off of various places on Princeton’s campus while they were trying to advertise the event. “When we were posting our flyers for the event, we had on three occasions people ripping a lot of them off prior to the event, as if they wanted to send a message.”
“We planned this about a month in advance, but every time they took them down, we persisted. And then we kept hanging out posters. They took them down, we kept hanging up. Didn’t matter. We ended up keeping ours up at the end,” Almiron explained.
There was also a cultural convening at the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church following the rally, which featured protest music and a dance group from Ecuador.
Pazmino shared that the protest is “just the beginning.”
“What I’m saying is one hundred days of resistance, and we [will] keep going.”
Luke Grippo is a senior News writer and Features contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey and usually covers University politics, on a national, regional, and local scale.
Sena Chang is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’ She typically covers campus and community activism, the state of higher education, and alumni news.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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