From Minneapolis to New York and Los Angeles to Atlanta, protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown erupted nationwide on Friday, as demonstrators marched, boycotted work and school, and urged their fellow Americans to shut it all down.
Organizers said protests were planned at roughly 250 sites across dozens of states as part of what they described as a “national shutdown.”
Demonstrators called for ICE to be abolished and said they opposed both immigration raids and deportations being carried out without due process.
Nowhere was the anger more concentrated than in Minneapolis, which has emerged as ground zero for the movement.
Several thousand protestors marched through the city’s downtown following the fatal shootings of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and mom-of-three Renee Good by federal agents in two separate incidents earlier this month.
The Justice Department has since opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death to examine whether Department of Homeland Security officers violated the law.
Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello performed at a benefit concert in Minneapolis supporting the families of Good and Pretti, both of whom were killed by federal agents during immigration raids in the city.
In New York City, thousands gathered at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan, braving below-freezing temperatures to protest ICE enforcement. In Atlanta, protesters marched along Buford Highway, a corridor known for its immigrant-owned businesses.
Protests also spread to other cities, including Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, where hundreds turned out despite bitterly cold conditions. In several locations, organizers encouraged participants to close businesses or withhold labor as part of the broader shutdown effort, underscoring the size and scope of the coordinated protests.
In Portland, Oregon, students walked out of classes and joined community marches, while on the opposite coast, in Portland, Maine, demonstrators filled Monument Square, chanting and holding signs opposing deportations and ICE operations in the state.
In Tucson, Arizona, at least 20 schools canceled classes after the Tucson Unified School District cited high staff absences linked to the protests.
In Los Angeles, demonstrations didn’t stay contained. After thousands marched downtown, a smaller group converged on a federal detention center, clashing with federal officers and triggering a law enforcement response, according to The New York Times.
By nightfall, authorities had declared the assembly unlawful and moved in to disperse the crowd.
Despite the scale of the demonstrations, the White House has shown no sign of backing down.
Speaking on the red carpet at Thursday’s Kennedy Center premiere of Melania, the new $75 million documentary about his wife, President Donald Trump dismissed suggestions that immigration enforcement would be scaled back.
“We’ll do whatever we can to keep our country safe,” he said while also praising his border czar, Tom Homan.
With organizers already calling for additional actions, the nationwide protests show little sign of slowing.
What began as outrage over deadly immigration raids in Minneapolis has broadened into a coordinated show of resistance, with demonstrators signaling that opposition to the administration’s immigration tactics now spans cities large and small, even in the coldest conditions.
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