A major conservative youth conference got overrun by leftist anti-ICE protestors, with press accounts confirming that a horde of local militant liberals clashed with attendees of the conference outside the event, which featured prominent figures like Secretary Pete Hegseth and border czar Tom Homan.
For background, on July 12, 2025, protestors descended on Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa Bay, Florida, chanting loudly and accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of racism with cries of “TPD, KKK, ICE — they’re all the same.” Moreover, Fox News reported that there was at least one altercation between protestors and a group of conservatives outside of the conference, leading police to intervene.
According to press accounts, the protest was organized by Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which accused Turning Point USA, the organization behind the conference, of “turning our city into the staging ground for its largest youth indoctrination summit of the year,” adding, “From July 11-13, thousands of students will gather at the Tampa Convention Center to be trained by a far-right lineup of speakers…to spread an extremist agenda across schools, universities, and communities.”
In addition, Fox reported that police officers had to step in at the event after “a conflict with counter-protesters left one protester bloody in the street,” adding that protesters were marching while holding signs that read, “Defeat the Trump agenda,” “TP for the USA: When history gets messy, FLUSH IT,” and “No ICE on Campus!”
Moreover, one protester who came to speak out against the event, Oliver Cheese, told Fox, “Since Donald Trump has taken office, the attacks on education have been unparalleled.” He added, “He has slashed funding from FSU’s neighbor university, Florida’s only black HBCU, Florida A&M University. He’s cut millions and millions of dollars of funding from FSU, USF, UCF.”
Continuing, Cheese said that he had come to protest because, he claimed, immigrant students in Florida feel “that their rights are under attack.” He added that they feel “that they’re under threat of being deported, of having ICE raid them in their dorms.” Another protester added, “We just really want to bring people together.”
Furthermore, protesters and hecklers also made their way into the event while Trump border czar Tom Homan was speaking, with one asking from the crowd, “Are you an MS-13 member?” Homan responded, “This guy wouldn’t know what it’s like to serve this nation. This guy ain’t got the balls to be an ICE officer. He hasn’t got the balls to be a border patrol agent.”
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Doubling down as the heckler was escorted out of the event, Homan said, “This guy lives in his mother’s basement. The only thing that surprised me is [he] doesn’t have purple hair and a nose ring. Get out of here, you loser.” He added, “Sometimes, I’m harsh. But if I offend anybody here tonight, I don’t give a s—.”
Watch footage of the protest:
Featured image credit: video screengrab