No work, no shopping, no dining out. Hundreds of businesses across Minnesota are expected to close and many people are vowing to pause everyday activities on Friday as part of a general strike against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
As tensions mount and a sense of fear of detention by immigration agents permeates the state, vendors, labor unions and residents are set to participate in an economic blackout and gather at prayers and protests on what organizers called a “Day of Truth and Freedom.”
“It’s tense and emotional, and folks are hurting,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, the executive director of Faith in Action, which is helping with the organizing effort. Minnesotans, he said, are demonstrating “deep resilience and willingness to stand together in ways I haven’t seen folks do in a very long time.”
Word of Friday’s strike and protests spread “like a wildfire,” said Jake Anderson, an executive board member with the St. Paul Federation of Educators, a labor union representing teachers and educational support professionals. Hundreds of businesses, mostly in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said they would close, while others have vowed to pause any economic activity, stay home from work or school, or fast to show support.
“There’s a time to stand up for things, and this is it,” said Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, a restaurant in Minneapolis that will be closed on Friday. “If it takes away from a day of our income, that is worthwhile.”
The strike comes as Minnesotans have clashed for weeks with federal agents, mostly in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. The immigration operation, which started late last year, has led to some 3,000 arrests, at least two shootings in Minneapolis and chaotic scenes on the streets.
Calls for the ouster of federal agents have grown from residents and local officials in recent weeks, especially after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good, an American citizen, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Protesters and state officials have also filed lawsuits to restrict the agents’ conduct toward demonstrators and to block the surge of immigration agents in the state.
But federal officials have asserted that the crackdown is necessary to root out fraud in the state’s social services system and have defended the actions of the ICE agent who killed Ms. Good.
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said that the Trump administration wanted to “turn down the temperature” in Minneapolis after weeks of clashes. Mr. Vance, who said he had traveled to the city to understand the tensions, called Minneapolis protesters “far-left agitators” who had harassed federal agents. He also said a “failure of cooperation” by state and local officials was to blame for the situation getting “out of hand.”
In an email on Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security official called the strike “beyond insane,” asking, “Why would these labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their communities?” The official then included a list of undocumented immigrants who had apparently been convicted of serious crimes.
Minnesota is a mecca for corporate headquarters, with 17 Fortune 500 companies based in the state. But those organizations have not spoken publicly about the federal immigration activity, and none of Minnesota’s 15 biggest employers, including Target, UnitedHealth Group and Xcel Energy, responded to requests for comment on Thursday.
Still, Friday may be the largest worker action in the state’s history, said Christa Sarrack, president of a labor union that represents about 6,000 of Minnesota’s hospitality workers. Ms. Sarrack said some of the union members’ employers had decided to close for the day, while others were allowing employees to not come to work.
“We cannot simply sit by and allow this to continue,” Ms. Sarrack said. “We must use every tool that we have to fight back.”
But not all employers have committed to striking. For some, the choice over whether to participate has not been an easy one because they simply cannot afford to lose a day’s revenue.
Andrew Schoenzeit, who owns Zipps Liquors in Minneapolis, said his business would be open on Friday. But he said he supported the strike and had no problem with the one employee of his who he said requested the day off to protest.
Mike Logan, the president of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he was also supportive of businesses closing in protest but would not encourage them to do so. “The last thing we need is a slowdown of commerce,” he said.
For some leaders of local and state unions, the decision over whether to encourage their members to participate in the general strike was difficult because it was not organized under legal strike laws, and it was not considered an official “work stoppage day.” But the push for the boycott spread so widely that it became hard to ignore.
Chris Rubesch, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, a labor union representing more than 22,000 nurses and other health care workers across the state, said he and other leaders were discouraging their members from missing work because of “no-strike” provisions in their contract. But he said the union was encouraging the members to participate in other ways, including by not participating in any economic activity.
Mr. Anderson, the board member of the St. Paul Federation of Educators, said his union signed on to the day of action after much debate, and has sent letters to members asking them “to decide what that call to action means to them.”
“We decided it was now time to take a stand,” Mr. Anderson said. “It was time to boldly declare that enough is enough. We’re not going to take it anymore.”
Kailyn Rhone and Zachary A. Bohlman contributed reporting.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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