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Comic-Con Crowds Walk Into Anti-ICE Protest
Thousands of Comic-Con fans expecting four days of superheroes and pop culture instead found themselves walking through a large anti-ICE demonstration outside the San Diego Convention Center. Protest organizers intentionally timed the rally with Comic-Con's opening day to bring national attention to immigration enforcement and recent ICE-related shootings.
Anti-ICE protest erupts outside San Diego Comic-Con Credit: Mike Miller; Calie Skiba
For many fans, Comic-Con 2026 started before they even entered the convention.
It started with chants, banners, and a political protest.
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As the doors opened on Thursday, July 23, thousands of attendees made their way toward the San Diego Convention Center, only to encounter demonstrators marching through downtown calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The protest was organized by the ICE Out of San Diego (IOSD) coalition, which deliberately scheduled the demonstration to coincide with Comic-Con's opening day, when roughly 135,000 visitors from around the world gather in the city.
Marchers assembled near Fifth Avenue and L Street, just outside the convention center.
Many carried signs reading "ICE OUT OF SD", while others held photographs of individuals killed during recent encounters with ICE agents.
If you've followed this far, here's why organizers chose Comic-Con.
The coalition said the event offered one of the largest public audiences in the country and presented an opportunity to raise awareness about immigration enforcement while national media were already focused on San Diego.
Organizers said the protest was partly motivated by two recent fatal ICE-related shootings.
One involved 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Houston on July 7.
The other involved 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was shot outside a laundromat in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13.
Demonstrators carried both men's photographs throughout the march and called for greater accountability and changes to federal immigration policy.
Among those participating was Rabbi Mike Rothbaum, who said demonstrators first observed Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning, before joining the march to Comic-Con.
Salvador G. Sarmiento of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said Comic-Con symbolizes courage and imagination, making it an ideal setting to draw attention to what organizers described as urgent humanitarian concerns.
Despite the demonstration, Comic-Con activities continued without interruption.
Fans in elaborate costumes walked alongside protesters, creating an unusual scene where comic book characters and political activists briefly shared the same streets.
Police monitored the march, and no major incidents or disruptions to convention programming were reported.
The timing also came just one day after San Diego officials confirmed Comic-Con will remain in the city through 2030, underscoring the convention's economic and cultural importance.
Comic-Con has been held in San Diego since 1970 and remains one of the largest pop culture gatherings in the world.
This year's opening served as a reminder that even entertainment events attracting hundreds of thousands of people can become platforms for broader public debate.
For a few hours, the road to superheroes led through one of America's latest immigration protests.
Editor's Note
The protest remained peaceful, and Comic-Con operations continued as scheduled. Organizers said the demonstration was intended to raise awareness of immigration enforcement policies and recent ICE-related shootings. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not publicly responded to the protest at the time of publication.
