In below-freezing temperatures, hundreds of community members rallied at West Side Park in Champaign on Sunday to protest the first year of the Trump administration.
“It’s 22 (degrees), wind chills, it’s supposed to be gusts up to 25 or something,” said Tom Kacich, bemoaning the harsh weather conditions. “You know, it’s tough. Old people can be tough too.”
Kacich was one of the initial members to join Champaign-Urbana Resistance Effort, an organization founded in March 2025 to protest President Donald Trump’s administration. It was CURE that sponsored Sunday’s event.
Equipped with buttons, handwarmers and signs with anti-Trump, anti-ICE and anti-war slogans, protestors marched in loops around the park as cars driving by honked in support.
“We are just expressing our First Amendment rights to express our discontent with the administration and the direction the country’s taken in the last year in hopes of turning things around,” Kacich said. “You know, it’s everything. It’s ICE, it’s trampling on the First Amendment, it’s his autocratic ways of changing the whole government without any input from Congress, although Congress should step up and do something.”
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Frustration with the United States Congress was an issue at the forefront of the minds of many protestors.
“I wish elected representatives from both parties would be more forceful and speak out,” said Stacey Roux. “You know, everyone in Congress can’t be a horrible, lawless person. There has to be some decency. I was mildly hopeful when that war resolution relating to Venezuela passed with a little bit of bipartisan support. But then I saw that (Josh) Hawley and the Indiana senator (Todd Young) backed out.”
Roux referred to a measure that attempted to require the administration to get congressional approval before taking action in Venezuela, which did not pass despite initial bipartisan support.
Protestors, such as Al Mytty, the local coordinator for the Illinois branch of World BEYOND War, admonished the administration’s actions in Venezuela and spoke in support of the war powers resolution.
“We’ve done this time and time again, where we have bombed countries, killed people, created immigrants, created refugees, destroyed the environment, so that we can have control of oil,” Mytty said. “The war powers resolution should have been passed unanimously in Congress. That should be one of the tenets that our country stands for in accordance with the Constitution.”
Mytty also condemned American military strikes on Venezuelan boats, including 35 known strikes killing 115 people. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended one such incident — which drew criticism for a second strike that hit survivors of an initial attack — saying it was carried out in “self-defense,” to protect U.S. interests, occurred in international waters and complied with the laws of armed conflict. Some have accused Trump of war crimes.
This wasn’t CURE’s first protest this year. After Renee Good was fatally shot by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, CURE led a ‘Good Justice Caravan’ to protest ICE.
At Sunday’s protest, the demonstration against ICE continued. Two individuals leading the march hoisted up sticks with flags on them that said ‘Abolish ICE’ and many more donned signage with that same statement.
“It’s horrific what’s happening in cities with ICE, the killings, the violence,” Roux said. “They (the administration) are lying about what happened and I hate that everyone’s in an information silo and there are people that don’t even know the truth of what happened because of this state propaganda that they’re issuing from the White House.”
The rally also paid tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy — with protestors outfitted with signs paying homage to the Reverend.
“He wanted everybody to have equal rights, equal opportunities to speak out against or for anything in the country,” Kacich said.
Kacich added that equal rights haven’t been achieved — “you can see it by the way ICE targets anybody who’s not white”—and that MLK would have objections to what “they’re doing in the country.”
