Minneapolis residents surged into the streets again on Friday, seeking to drive out federal agents who had killed two of their own, in a day of protests encouraged by Bruce Springsteen, who made a surprise appearance at a rowdy benefit concert.
Demonstrations took place across the city and nation, six days after federal agents gunned down a resident who had been videotaping a deportation action in the street. The killing of the man, Alex Pretti, set off a wave of fury that has posed a grave political threat to the Trump administration.
In Minneapolis, protests sprung up spontaneously across the city. The day’s actions culminated in a mass protest in the central district, where thousands of demonstrators packed Government Plaza, amassing in single-digit temperatures. They raised clouds of steam as they chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!”
The crowd gathered around midafternoon, and pumped-up attendees of the benefit concert joined. The protesters filled perhaps 10 blocks, with hundreds of others watching from the city’s elevated, enclosed Skyway, which links downtown buildings.
The crowd flowed onto outdoor stairs in front of the plaza’s buildings, which include the seats of local government and the federal courthouse where people arrested in connection with a protest at a church were making their initial appearances. Demonstrators crowded every available public space, while light rail trains tried to edge through the throng.
The most common chant was an obscene rejoinder to ICE.
Many of the signs they carried were similarly pointed: “My Dog Is Better Trained,” one read. “Couldn’t Imagine Having a More Embarrassing Job,” read another.
At the benefit concert, headlined by Tom Morello, former guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, hundreds of Minnesotans lined up outside the venue, called First Avenue, to support the families of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good, who was also shot by an agent during a protest this month.
Most of the performers, many of whom were local favorites, praised the crowd for remaining peaceful through weeks of aggression by federal agents, telling them the world was watching. But the bands’ driving songs of protest fanned an undercurrent of fury that had the crowd stomping and the building’s floor heaving. “ICE out now,” many chanted, along with a few more profane demands.
Organizers hinted at an appearance by a “very special guest,” and about midway through, the crowd turned electric at the expectation that Mr. Springsteen would play. He appeared during the show’s final 40 minutes, singing “Streets of Minneapolis,” his new tribute to the protesters and those killed.
“Nuance is nice, but sometimes you have to kick them in the teeth,” Mr. Springsteen said Mr. Morello had told him, and the crowd screamed. After an all-hands encore of the Springsteen classic “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” the crowd of about 1,500 emptied onto the pavement, many of them joining the Government Plaza protests.
Early Friday morning, a crowd massed just outside the Minneapolis city line, across from the Whipple Building, a federal complex that houses offices, a detention center and a courthouse, and that has become a home base for immigration agents and protesters alike.
Members of the clergy addressed protesters carrying posters featuring a loon — the Minnesota state bird — framed by the words “We are Minnesota” and “We protect our neighbors.” But a tense moment unfolded as sheriff’s deputies arrested a protester, meeting with jeers from the crowd.
Later, in the Dinkytown neighborhood, near the University of Minnesota, a group called Socialist Alternative picketed a Target store; protesters have been pressing the company to take a stronger stand against the federal presence in the city.
Protesters briefly made their way inside the store, effectively blocking the entrance. Shoppers squeezed past protesters packed inside the store’s vestibule, and two police officers stationed inside the store herded the protesters outside.
Claire Fahy and Chris Hippensteel contributed reporting from Minneapolis.
Elizabeth Williamson is a feature writer for The Times, based in Washington. She has been a journalist for three decades, on three continents.
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