The stark contrast of college campuses’ reactions between the ICE conflict in the United States and the war in Palestine has been disappointing and doesn’t reflect well on students. Students should be showing the same energy to the recent ICE raids, if not more.
In 2024, multiple movements were seen across the U.S., including Long Beach City College, where students risked suspension, expulsion and arrest due to the overwhelming activism work to get colleges to divest money from Israel-aligned companies and support Palestine.
U.S. college campuses have seen nothing close to that kind of support for the immigration crisis that threatens many families in the country.
So why, when the population of California is heavily filled with immigrants, are California student activists not as well organized as they were during the height of the Israel-Palestine conflict?
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, as of January 2026, 28% of California’s population was foreign-born, and 44% of California’s children have at least one immigrant parent.
Jerome Hunt, a professor at LBCC who specializes in American Government and Political Behavior, brought an interesting point to the table when asked about the difference between the reactions of college students.
“It could just be fatigue, you know, honestly, in terms of what it is, how many issues can you give 100 percent of yourself to, and still be able to do all the other things that you need to do?” said Hunt.
From constant, overwhelming videos of death from the Israel-Palestinian war, to the new information on the Jeffrey Epstein Files, as just a few examples, everyone is being bombarded with news that impacts a person’s mental health.
There is something students and U.S. citizens can do and control and that is learning how to set boundaries.
Regulation is one of the most important things you can do for your mental health, learning where to delegate your energy while remaining informed about current events.
Students need to prioritize their feelings and reduce overconsumption of media, as it has slowed the level of protests due to the possible constant fatigue from being overfed with the downsides of news.
Instead, students should replace these doomscrolling habits with reasonable consumption of reputable news sources, as well as healthier habits to limit the overwhelming onslaught of scare tactics to get more clicks on videos and articles.
Many TikToks and articles from unreliable sources are aimed at getting you to stay, watch and be afraid, but by taking the extra time to skip them, watch news from a reliable source and taking time away from doomscrolling, you are disrupting the scare tactic cycle.
Along with this fatigue, there is a sense of desensitization.
Just as quickly as it escalated, the ICE protests sparked at a rapid pace towards the beginning of summer 2025, with videos constantly circulating on social media of Hispanic communities being targeted to the point where people have now become desensitized.
But this isn’t an excuse either, because how could those who mobilize and organize so efficiently towards one conflict that flooded feeds with violent content not do so quickly towards another?
The Israel-Palestine protestors should be enacting the same tactics that they did, but in support of the immigration conflict in the U.S.
Regardless of the university, community college or trade school involvement with Israel-aligned businesses, college students have always been at the forefront of the most impactful organized protests and social movements.
This isn’t to say that the Israel-Palestine conflict is any more or less important than the conflict of ICE in the U.S., but that students should realize the conflict that lies close to home should have the same support.
Similar to the energy that was seen online and in person for the Israel-Palestinian war, students should be protesting on campus, supporting immigrant businesses and learning how to take action in local communities, rather than just sharing a video or post online.
