Dozens of Denver students who ditched school to protest ICE attacked counterprotesters during a Friday demonstration that led to at least three hospitalizations. The anti-ICE protesters earned praise from socialist congressional candidate Melat Kiros, who called them "brave" and praised their truancy.
The walkout to La Alma-Lincoln Park attracted hundreds of students in the middle of the school day, with some traveling for an hour or more. A smaller group of those students surrounded and assaulted counterprotesters who gathered at the park. One woman had her hair pulled and was punched in the face, the Denver Gazette reported. Another was hit in the head with a metal water bottle, while a third had a camera knocked out of his hand and was kicked and shoved to the ground, according to Denver7, a local ABC News affiliate.
The counterprotesters were eventually forced out of the park, Colorado Newsline reported. The students then started a "fuck ICE" chant before charging across the street and attacking the counterprotesters, calling them Nazis. Some students carried an Israeli flag with red paint strewn across it.
Teachers, adult organizers, and Denver Public Schools security officials tried to hold them back and "redirect their attention," Colorado Public Radio reported. But one of the youth leaders, Christy Aguilar, told Denver7, "A lot of these students are really willing to fight for their justice and really willing to fight for everything that's right in this country." Police said in a statement that there were five assaults or altercations at the event, and at least three were hospitalized for unknown injuries, with investigations ongoing. No arrests were made, though two people were cited for graffiti. The protest was "unpermitted," which police said "contributed to an unsafe environment for participants."
None of that posed a problem for Kiros, who is widely expected to succeed Rep. Diana DeGette after defeating the 15-term incumbent in June's Democratic primary. Kiros attended the protest and praised the students.
Kiros, who attended the protest, told Colorado Public Radio the students were "brave" for joining the event in the face of discipline and online harassment.
"You chose to show up today and stand up for your immigrant neighbors that are being terrorized by this fascist administration and this rogue agency that's kidnapping our neighbors and throwing them into concentration camps," she told the students in a short speech.
Melat Kiros, the DSA Democrat nominee for Colorado's 1st congressional district, spoke to students who left school on Friday to join anti-ICE protests in which they violently attacked reporters and anyone they didn't believe was supporting them.
"I know a lot of you were faced… pic.twitter.com/A1Cqu4tUYR
— Leftism (@LeftismForU) September 6, 2026
The students also tried marching through the streets surrounding the park, but police told them it was an unlawful assembly and directed them to disperse. State senator Julie Gonzales, who ran a failed primary bid against Democratic senator John Hickenlooper (though she won in Denver), redirected the group to the sidewalks around the park and nearby neighborhood.
Denver Public Schools did not immediately respond to questions about whether students who skipped school or attacked the counterprotesters would face discipline. Kiros didn't immediately respond to questions about whether she condemned the violence or graffiti.
Far-left individuals and groups have encouraged student walkouts since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. (Denver Communists were present at Friday's demonstration.) The Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist-Leninist group that seeks to overthrow capitalism, for instance, created a Telegram channel for students in Georgia and held online webinars to direct a "student movement against ICE," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Kiros, meanwhile, has routinely downplayed violence, particularly when it involves anti-American, anti-Israel, and antisemitic attacks. On the campaign trail, she described both the Sept. 11, 2001, and Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks as the "inevitable" result of colonial aggression. She enjoyed the backing of Hasan Piker, the anti-American streamer who has said that "America deserved 9/11."
Kiros has also repeatedly refused to call the June 2025 firebombing attack on a group of Jews in nearby Boulder antisemitic. The assailant, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, shouted "free Palestine" as he threw Molotov cocktails, injuring more than a dozen and killing one. Soliman had been planning the attack for more than a year and told investigators he wanted to "kill all Zionist people."
When asked if she felt it was "important to suss out the firebomber's motivations," she said that "whatever hatred" Soliman had "for the state of Israel and their actions manifested in a way that it inflicted violence on a group of innocent people and a group of innocent Jewish people that were protesting in this way."
"And this kind of hatred for the state of Israel does manifest in a way that puts Jewish people in unique danger," Kiros continued. "And understanding that piece I think is important so that we know that what our options are in reevaluating our relationship with Israel so that we can tone that temperature down and prevent some of that violence from happening."
