Organizers behind the anti-Israel demonstrations across U.S. schools and cities are expanding their playbook to another cause: agitating high school students against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist-Leninist group that seeks to overthrow capitalism, has been a key player in the anti-Israel movement that gained steam in the United States after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The PSL has recently pivoted to teaching high-schoolers to walk out of their classes in protest against ICE, creating a Telegram channel for students in Georgia and holding online webinars to direct a "student movement against ICE."
Footage from the PSL's Georgia webinar over the weekend shows members of the organization "instructing students on protest methods, offering PSL literature for student teach-ins, and providing advice on how to interrogate teachers for their political views," according to the North American Values Institute (NAVI) watchdog group, which shared videos with the Washington Free Beacon.
PSL member and transgender activist Addison Clapp acknowledged at the end of the Saturday session that members of the organization had personally reached out to high school students to invite them to the webinar.
"You were likely invited here by a PSL member who texted you about it," Clapp said. "Just text them right back and be like, 'I got some questions,' and if they can't answer them, they can reach out to me or somebody else who could answer their questions."
Clapp used the Sunday webinar to tell the students in attendance that their parents support "masked terrorists."
"Your parents are on the wrong side of history," Clapp said. "Your parents are supporting masked terrorists murdering people. You are either with the people or you're with ICE. There is no neutral position and your parents are not automatically the most moral people on the planet."
Clapp continued: "If you believe that something needs to be done, and honestly, if you have to take a punishment for it, that's a righteous way to do it. It's much cooler to get punished for standing up against masked terrorists in your communities than to get punished for just skipping school on a random school day."
The PSL's description of ICE agents as "terrorists" is notable given the group's history of pro-Hamas activism. Just after October 7, the PSL described Hamas's attack as a "bold counter-offensive" and a "morally and legally legitimate response to occupation." The group was a prominent supporter of the pro-terror encampments on college campuses in 2024, bringing food and supplies into occupied areas of universities. It helped organize both the Columbia University encampment and a traffic blockade in Washington, D.C., the same year.
Elias Rodriguez, the man charged with killing Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., in May of last year, is a former member of the PSL.
The group's shift toward anti-ICE activism has become a trend among players in the anti-Israel movement. The University of Minnesota's Students for a Democratic Society chapter—which stormed a campus building during a destructive anti-Israel riot in 2025—has emerged as a leader of anti-ICE agitation in Minneapolis, the Free Beacon reported earlier this month.
The PSL has followed a similar pattern, according to NAVI. Clapp used the webinars to praise the January 30 school walkout in Georgia and pressed students to escalate their demonstrations. Clapp encouraged students to form an "ICE Out Committee" at their schools and hold anti-ICE teach-ins, offering to provide materials for events and to connect students with bail fund groups to assist students who may get arrested.
When other students expressed concerns about getting suspended for participating in walkouts, Clapp said the children should encourage more participation from their classmates, saying, "If half the school walks out, they can't suspend half the school."
"The bigger you can build your action, the less likely it is that you will face repression," Clapp continued.
