U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank is asking the Justice Department to investigate violence at last week’s anti-ICE student walkout in Denver, including whether outside organizations helped organize, fund, or influence the demonstration.

Crank sent a letter Tuesday requesting the investigation to Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Videos and on-the-ground reporting show that the Denver walkout turned violent, with assaults on journalists and counterprotesters, raising serious questions about whether participants were unlawfully prevented from exercising their own constitutional rights,” Crank wrote.

“The growing mobilization of leftist and socialist groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible, and 50501 Colorado represents a real threat to law and order in the United States, as these groups support and advocate for defunding federal and state law enforcement officials.”

Denver police reported five assaults among demonstrators in the park. Three were transported to a hospital with unknown injuries.

Officers identified and interviewed multiple suspects. The investigation is ongoing.

Police also said that they cited two individuals for graffiti.

On Friday, hundreds of students across Denver skipped class and gathered at La Alma-Lincoln Park to protest federal immigration enforcement.

The protest quickly turned violent.

Denver police reported five assaults and three people taken to the hospital.

More than 160 schools across the state were expected to participate in the walkout protesting immigration enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration, according to the Colorado Youth Coalition, which organized the demonstration.

Students recounted stories of friends being detained by ICE and decried ICE’s tactics, including obscuring their identities and wearing face masks.

As the crowd grew, students clashed with counterprotesters. Students threw water on a man wearing a red MAGA hat and face covering with an “I love ICE” sign. Students then stole his sign and ripped it up. A woman had her hair pulled and was punched in the face.

Student walkouts have a long history in the United States, serving for generations as a way for young people to protest government policies — from segregation and the Vietnam War to immigration enforcement and gun violence.

“Students are usually acting as part of a broader movement,” Maryam Jamshidi, a law professor at the University of Colorado Law School, has said, noting pushback on the Trump administration’s policies.

Too young to vote, walkouts are one of the few channels available to high school students.

Two years ago, college students at several universities erected encampments in a pro-Palestinian movement that demanded universities divest from corporations that operate in Israel, end study abroad programs to the Jewish state and deny grants or funding from corporations that contract with the U.S. military.

The protests in Colorado and elsewhere in America set off a fierce debate over the parameters of free speech, drew allegations of antisemitism and put the spotlight on university administrations.

And earlier this year, thousands of Colorado students took to the streets to protest the Trump administration following an ICE crackdown in Minnesota.

Melat Kiros, the Democratic nominee for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, was among those who spoke at the gathering, telling students, “This is how you change things.”