Hundreds of Minnesota Businesses Close and Thousands March Against ICE Surge

Large crowds marched through downtown Minneapolis in subzero cold on Friday, and hundreds of Minnesota businesses closed for the day, as organizers staged what they called “ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom.” The action targeted the federal immigration enforcement surge that has brought as many as 3,000 officers to the state, according to NPR; Fox 9 quoted Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino as saying “several thousand.”

Indivisible Twin Cities, one of the organizers, described the day to Fox 9 as a statewide day of nonviolent moral action, and asked participants not to work, attend school or shop. Labor unions, faith leaders and community activists took part, according to NPR. Organizers told Fox 9 that more than 700 businesses had committed to close, while NPR described restaurants, museums, bookstores and coffee shops among those shut. A crowd gathered at The Commons in Minneapolis at 2 p.m. and walked about a mile to the Target Center for a rally, Fox 9 reported.

NPR reported that the organizers want immigration officers to leave Minnesota, Congress to approve no additional ICE funding, and companies to cut ties with the agency. They also want legal accountability for the ICE officer who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month. Fox 9 said the aim is to hurt ICE financially and draw the attention of federal leaders. Fox 9 also noted the historical echo of Minnesota’s 1934 general strike, which began in Minneapolis trucking and lasted about two months.

The enforcement surge has been under way for weeks. Bovino said “several thousand” federal officers are in Minnesota but would not give an exact number, Fox 9 reported, and officials offered no end date. An ICE official, Marcos Charles, said the Department of Homeland Security has arrested more than 10,000 people in Minnesota over the past year, including more than 3,300 since Operation Metro Surge began, according to Fox 9.

The administration and its supporters frame the operation as ordinary enforcement of immigration law that local officials are obstructing. On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance held a roundtable in Minneapolis in support of ICE employees. He said state and local officials and protesters were making enforcement harder and that if they cooperated with ICE, the “chaos would go way down,” Fox 9 reported. He said he did not think invoking the Insurrection Act was needed now, but that if matters worsened, “that would be a real problem,” Fox 9 reported. NPR reported that Vance said the government takes allegations of racial profiling seriously and that people who storm a church would face federal prosecution.

That church case is one of the flashpoints. Federal officials have arrested several people over a Jan. 18 protest that disrupted a service at Cities Church in St. Paul, NPR reported. Attorney General Pam Bondi said activist and attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested for her role in planning it, and Fox 9 said it was unclear whether she and another person arrested, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, had been formally charged. Lawyers for the church supported the arrests, according to Fox 9.

Critics say the tactics have gone too far. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused ICE of racial profiling at a news conference Thursday night and suggested Vance’s visit may be “political theater,” Fox 9 reported. NPR reported that three local police leaders said federal agents had profiled off-duty officers, and that reporters saw agents use tear gas and flash-bang grenades on crowds. NPR said DHS disputes some accounts of individual arrests, including that of a 5-year-old detained with his father, which the family’s lawyer and witnesses deny.

Vance did not meet with Frey or Gov. Tim Walz during the trip, Fox 9 reported.