Crowds rallied in dozens of cities across the nation on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, hoping to build on momentum from demonstrations on Friday against immigration enforcement operations targeting Minneapolis and other liberal-leaning cities.
Most of the protests on Saturday were held without incident. But in Minneapolis — where federal agents have clashed repeatedly with demonstrators in recent two months — a rally was punctured with moments of tension, as sheriffs’ deputies made arrests that some protesters deemed violent.
About 100 people gathered in frigid weather on Saturday morning outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building, where federal agents have been detaining suspected undocumented immigrants who have been arrested in the Twin Cities area. Protesters blew whistles and blared air horns.
Protest activity intensified across the nation in January in support of the residents of Minneapolis, who have faced an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign by the Trump administration. President Trump announced on Saturday in a social media post that ICE and Border Patrol agents would begin guarding federal buildings, which have become targets for protesters.
The killings of two people in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both American citizens — by federal agents taking part in the immigration crackdown ignited a powder keg in public opinion over the past week.
Hoping to tamp down public anger, President Trump sent his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis to oversee the immigration enforcement operation there. He replaced Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol commander who had become a lightning rod for criticism of federal agents’ aggressive tactics.
Church bells pealed solemnly throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday, expressing solidarity with protesters and with people facing deportation.
Meghan Gage-Finn, a senior associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian in Minneapolis, said that while the bells were a familiar sound to her, their music on Saturday meant something different.
“I hear them all day long, they ring throughout the day, throughout the week,” she said. “But to hear them ringing out in solidarity and in response to what this community is experiencing, I heard them in a new way.”
Some protesters have criticized the prosecution of demonstrators who were accused of interrupting a church service in St. Paul, where a pastor is an ICE official. Two journalists who were present at the incident, including the former CNN reporter Don Lemon, also have been charged.
Opponents of the administration’s immigration agenda rallied on Saturday in towns and cities, including some that have themselves been targets of aggressive enforcement operations.
About a dozen people conducted a sit-down protest against ICE at a Trump building in New York.
About 200 people gathered at the Moda Center near the Willamette River in Portland, Ore., where many residents have been angry at the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to crack down on protests at an ICE facility in the city. A march and a rally were planned near the federal building as well.
Taryn Singleton, a public-school teacher, attended the protest in Portland on Saturday with her daughter. “You have to do something,” Ms. Singleton said. “Voting just isn’t enough anymore.”
Nearly 100 protesters rallied in Fair Lawn, N.J., a community outside New York City that is home to many immigrants.
One of them was Alex Babin who came to the United States more than two decades ago from Ukraine. On Saturday, he thought of his homeland as he joined the protest.
“Russia attacked Ukraine trying to take their human rights,” he said. “Trump supports Russia. And now, here in America, innocent people have been killed because of his policies.”
He added, “This demonstration is about following the Constitution of the United States.”
Alba Lucia Morales Jimenez, a professor at Columbia University who immigrated to the United States from Colombia, also joined the protest in Fair Lawn. Though she is a naturalized American citizen, she has lately become worried that her citizenship may still not be enough to protect her from being a target for federal agents.
“I don’t feel safe any more,” Ms. Morales said. “We don’t want to be kidnapped, snatched, threatened, pushed, shoved and shot.”
Jessica Ochs, a photographer, attended the rally with her husband and 16-year-old son. She said she was frustrated over the killings in Minnesota and the deployment of federal agents across the nation, some of whom have knocked on the doors of her friends.
It was important, she said, for people to keep documenting enforcement activity that they see and to hold federal agents accountable.
“We are all witnesses,” she said. “We all have phones in our pockets. We should use them for something good.”
Claire Fahy contributed reporting from Minneapolis; Mark Bonamo from Fair Lawn, N.J.; Aaron West from Portland, Ore.; Traci Angel from Kansas City; and Nate Schweber from New York.
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
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