Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.
The action on Friday, which unfolded in subfreezing temperatures, was the most widespread and organized demonstration since federal agents arrived in Minneapolis more than six weeks ago. It was aimed at pressuring the federal government to pull thousands of its agents from the streets.
Businesses, many of them locally owned, closed their doors to halt economic activity, saying that losing a day’s revenue was worth the cost to be part of the effort to end the immigration enforcement.
The day of protests followed weeks of clashes between Minnesotans and 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, 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 and to block the surge.
“It’s tense and emotional, and folks are hurting,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of Faith in Action, which helped organize Friday’s 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.”
It wasn’t just Minnesotans who came out. Hundreds demonstrated at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, some from as far away as New York, flitting in and out of one of its terminals to stay warm.
Inside, protesters shared hot chocolate and hand warmers, and compared the layers of clothes they used to brave the bitter cold. After warming up enough to face the elements, they returned to the sidewalk, while police officers warned them to stay out of the street or they would face arrest.
At one point, a group of clergy stepped off the curb, knelt on the pavement and began to pray.
“Everybody’s got a right to live and before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail,” they sang. Protesters, many wearing snow suits and ski goggles, cheered as police arrested a few dozen of the clergy and loaded them onto buses.
That protest was one of several planned for Friday as part of the strike organized by residents, vendors, faith leaders and labor unions. The purpose, according to organizers, was to demonstrate the resolve of residents.
In neighborhoods around Minneapolis, many businesses and shops sat empty, with some posting signs in their windows expressing solidarity,
In St. Paul, Roots Roasting had an orange sign announcing their closing. “General strike,” it read. “No work, no school, no shopping, ICE out.”
Down the street, Spyhouse Coffee, part of a local chain, had a handwritten sign announcing its closure to “stand in solidarity with our community and other businesses.” The same was true for just about every coffee mainstay in the Twin Cities.
One of the few open was Misfit in Minneapolis, which occupies a large warehouse like building west of downtown. The owner, Marcus Parkansky, said his way of participating in the strike was to offer only coffee, pastries and espresso shots free of charge. Thanks to a donation from a woman in Texas, there will also be a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of Baileys, for those who want to spike their cup.
Mr. Parkansky said he hoped the strike shows the federal government how organized Minneapolis is. “What we want to see is for the shenanigans to stop,” he said.
Word of Friday’s strike and protests spread “like a wildfire” in the preceding days, said Jake Anderson, an executive board member with the St. Paul Federation of Educators, a union representing teachers and educational support professionals. Hundreds of businesses, mostly in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said they would close.
“There’s a time to stand up for things, and this is it,” said Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, a Minneapolis restaurant that closed on Friday. “If it takes away from a day of our income, that is worthwhile.”
Federal officials have said that their presence is necessary to find people in the country illegally and to root out fraud in the state’s social services system. They have stood by their interactions with protesters and defended the ICE agent who killed Ms. Good.
The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office characterized Ms. Good’s death as a homicide, the result of gunshot wounds. It made no judgment on whether the shooting was justified.
Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for the Good family, said in a statement on Friday that “we are still waiting for their full report and hope that they communicate with Renee’s family and share their report before releasing any further information to the public.”
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said that the Trump administration wanted to “turn down the temperature” in Minneapolis. Mr. Vance, who said he had traveled to the city to understand the tensions, called 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 has 17 Fortune 500 companies. But they 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.
Friday may be the largest worker action in the state’s history, said Christa Sarrack, president of a union that represents about 6,000 hospitality workers. Ms. Sarrack said some of their 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.”
For some employers, the choice over whether to participate has not been easy, because they simply cannot afford to lose a day’s revenue.
Andrew Schoenzeit, who owns Zipps Liquors in Minneapolis, said his business would remain open Friday. But he said he supported the strike and had no problem with the one employee who requested the day off to protest.
Mike Logan, president of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he was also supportive of businesses closing, but would not encourage them. “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 state and federal strike laws, and 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 union representing more than 22,000 nurses and other health care workers, said he and other leaders were discouraging members from missing work because of “no-strike” provisions in their contract. But he said the union was encouraging not to participate in any other economic activity.
Mr. Anderson, the board member of the St. Paul Federation of Educators, said his union signed on after much debate, and asked members “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, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Zachary A. Bohlman contributed reporting.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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