This post was updated April 21 at 10:01 p.m.

More than 150 demonstrators protested an event with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s head lawyer at the UCLA School of Law on Tuesday.

The UCLA Federalist Society – a chapter of the national conservative legal organization – hosted James Percival, general counsel of the DHS, for an event called “Inside DHS: A Conversation with General Counsel.” About 70 people, including protesters, attended the event – about 50 of whom walked out after the moderator said he would only ask Percival pre-screened questions.

About 150 demonstrators, including those who walked out of the event, protested outside the law school at about 1:15 p.m., chanting “No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist U.S.A.” Attendees heard from speakers, including law student Maahum Shahab, who condemned the DHS and the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, who was a blind refugee from Myanmar who died of hypothermia and dehydration in upstate New York after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents left him outside.

President Donald Trump pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history during his presidential campaign. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, housed under DHS, arrested 1,264 people per day on average between December 2025 and January 2026 – a 300% increase from the year before, according to the American Immigration Council. 

[Related: Immigration enforcement in ways ‘never been done before’: A look at Trump’s DHS] 

The Federalist Society said in a statement posted to its Instagram account Friday that the event was meant to encourage academic discussion and promote free speech.

“To those who disagree with Mr. Percival’s views, we extend a genuine invitation: come, ask your hardest questions, and make your case,” the statement said. “We invite all members of the UCLA Law community to attend, ask questions, and engage, with civility and respect.”

An organizer said at the beginning of the event that the Federalist Society pre-selected all questions that Percival would be asked.

Attendees shouted out questions anyway. 

“We didn’t want to just sit there and listen to the softballs,” law student Mitchell An-Ebbott said in an interview.

An-Ebbott said his friends submitted questions through a Google Form sent Tuesday to people who RSVPed. The questions asked about updates on U.S. citizens held in ICE detention and how many of them are from minority backgrounds, An-Ebbott said, adding that the moderator did not pose any of them to Percival.

“I had expected to be able to ask substantive questions,” An-Ebbott said. “I don’t think I would have gone otherwise.”

UCPD officers took away posters from protesters as they entered the event at a security checkpoint. Steve Lurie, the associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, said the confiscations were permissible because the event was a limited public forum, an event reserved for only certain groups or topics and at which the government can limit certain kinds of speech.

“We don’t want them (signs) to be used to be thrown at people,” he said. “We frequently restrict those, especially at events that are indoors, with registration – as opposed to, say, walking outside on campus with a sign, which would be a different circumstance.”

Lurie said UCLA welcomes all viewpoints, adding that he believes universities should be a place for debate.

Instead of posters, attendees held up pieces of paper during the event, including some that read “Stop kidnapping people” and “Stop caging children.” Many attendees also heckled Percival and the event’s moderator – Gregory McNeal, a professor of law at Pepperdine University – throughout the event, yelling “boo” and scoffing at Percival’s answers.

At least three remaining protesters left the room after the walkout after UCPD officers and organizers approached them. One of them was law student Shayok Chakraborty, who alleged the officers ordered him to leave after he shouted “Why are you detaining children illegally?”

Chakraborty said in an interview that he submitted the same question to Percival over the Google Form, but the moderator did not ask it.

Percival referred to undocumented immigrants as “aliens” multiple times throughout the discussion. Protesters shouted out questions on his use of the word and asked him to say “person” instead.

Attendees also played out sound effects, including doorbell noises and ringtones. After about 30 minutes, law professor Jon Michaels – who gave opening remarks – asked the audience to silence their phones. Attendees then clicked pens and tapped on desks.

Lydia Chun, a law student, said she believes McNeal was trying to run out the clock because attendees were promised a Q&A toward the end of the event. The open Q&A did not occur.

“They don’t care about free speech or debate or really hearing what anybody else might want to know about where they’re drawing their legal rationale,” she said.

Percival also said that deciding whether or not an undocumented person has acted in opposition to U.S. interests in deportation proceedings can involve reviewing statements made by immigrants.

“There are times in which determining whether the presence of an alien has a contrary effect on U.S. interests necessarily might require you to consider speech,” Percival said.

David Marcus, a law professor, said he believes Percival, as the DHS’s top lawyer, bears responsibility for the agency’s actions as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. 

“It (DHS action) has relaxed legal constraints on government officials to such a degree that the law agency at this moment is one of the greatest law breakers in the country,” Marcus said.

DHS is asking jails to send detained immigrants directly to ICE upon their release, Percival said in the talk. 

He also condemned sanctuary policies, which limit a jurisdiction’s compliance with federal immigration authorities. California has been a sanctuary state since 2018, and Los Angeles became a sanctuary city in 2024.  

“What sanctuary policy jurisdictions are saying is, ‘We’re not going to go out and arrest them,’” Percival said. “But that’s not what they’re being asked to do. The fundamental thing they’re being asked to do is to share information and just facilitate ICE coming.”

The crowd reacted with jeers and boos.

McNeal said at the talk that prison partnerships are questionable from a federalist perspective.

“It still feels like you’re telling me, my local jurisdiction, what to do,” he said. “It does feel a little more burdensome to facilitate those types of activities inside the jail cells.”

Percival also said the U.S. Code prohibits states from withholding immigration status information from the federal government.

“Immigration is such a core sovereign function, and the state sort of gave that up to the federal government,” he said.

In January, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Percival defending ICE using administrative warrants, which are signed by immigration officers instead of judges, to enter homes. Former DHS lawyers responded in a New York Times op-ed around two weeks later, disagreeing with his argument and calling it illegal.

At the event, Percival said ICE tries to obtain judicial warrants when possible, but added that federal judges are unlikely to sign them for immigration arrests. He also said he still believes administrative warrants are sufficient, because immigration enforcement is a civil rather than criminal issue. 

Chakraborty said he believes Percival justifying immigration enforcement through administrative warrants distorts the Constitution and is illegal.

“He’s not a real lawyer,” Chakraborty said. “He’s a hack. He’s a legal apologist for blatant disruption and destruction of our democratic rights.”

Percival also said there is not a fixed definition of due process and that it varies across cases. 

“We’re trying to apply the laws as written,” Percival said. 

Many attendees laughed in response. 

Matthew Weinberg, the president of the UCLA chapter of the Federalist Society, said in a texted statement the organization stands by its decision to hold the event with Percival.

“Today’s event was unfortunately marked by significant disruptions, including repeated interruptions and personal attacks directed at Mr. Percival, our chapter, and me as President of the UCLA School of Law Federalist Society, which limited his ability to speak,” he said.

Demonstrators marched around the law school at around 1:25 p.m. holding up posters and waving a Mexican flag. The crowd dispersed around 1:45 p.m., after Noah Massillon, a law student, urged attendees to donate to the West Los Respuesta Repida, which provides support to people impacted by immigration enforcement.

“If they bring this guy here, they’re gonna bring more,” he said.