Anti-ICE protests being held across US as organizers urge national strike | US news

Activists called for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigration.

Organizers say Friday’s “blackout” — or general strike, as some are calling it — is part of a growing nonviolent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny after a series of deadly shootings involving federal agents.

These deaths include Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Keith Porter in Los Angeles, and Silverio Villegas González in Illinois. Leaders of Friday’s national protest, most of whom were University of Minnesota students, called for ICE to leave the city after nearly a month of operation. They say economic pressure through work stoppages and consumer boycotts is just one way to demand accountability and reform.

“We are calling this strike because we believe that what we are doing in Minnesota should happen at the national level,” said Kidus Yeshidagna, president of the University of Minnesota Ethiopian Students Association and one of the students who organized the strike.

“We need more people and lawmakers across the country to wake up.”

Yeshidagna is part of a coalition of student groups that organized the shutdown in Minnesota last Friday, where thousands of people took to the streets in subzero temperatures and hundreds of businesses closed their doors to demand justice for Good, who was shot by an ICE agent while trying to protect his neighbor. Last weekend, agents killed Pretti, another resident who was observing the agents’ activities.

Student groups, including associations representing Black, Somali, Liberian, Ethiopian and Eritrean students and the graduate labor union, first met on Jan. 21 to plan local and national strike calls. “We went on a lot of marches despite the cold,” he said, referring to last week’s protests. “Now we’re doing it again.”

Businesses in dozens of cities, from restaurants to clothing retailers, from bookstores to cafes, announced that they were closed.

Protesters in Philadelphia, New York, Boise and Columbus are gathering at city halls, courthouses, state and legislative buildings, according to one protest scout. Students at high schools and colleges in Florida, California and other states are going on strike. In Milwaukee and Buffalo, Wyoming, people gather in parks and on street corners.

In Minnesota, where tens of thousands of people turned out for economic protests and a rally last Friday to protest the increase of ICE in the city, some businesses closed for the day while others said they stayed open under different models, either donating the day’s proceeds or providing free coffee and a place for people in the community to rest safely.

Bench Pressed, a letter printing and retail store in Minneapolis, is open and donating all profits as of Friday to people in the community who need help paying rent that is due this weekend through February. Little Joy Coffee in Northfield, south of Minneapolis, is selling $5 “Fuck ICE” honey and cinnamon lattes, with all proceeds going to mutual aid funds, and is providing supplies for people to screen print items with anti-ICE messages and reach out to their representatives.

Modern Times, a cafe in Minneapolis, has switched to a free, donation-based model indefinitely and is closed Friday for participation in the general strike. The business said it will be known as “Post Modern Times” until the ICE increase is over and refuses to generate taxable income to fund the government that is brutalizing the city.

Students in Knoxville, Tennessee this morning“ICE IS OUT” protest, Organized by Indivisible Knoxville. One video In the message, first shared by Democratic representative Gloria Johnson, students and adults chanted slogans and held signs bearing messages that read “Stop Funding ICE” and “We Skip Our Classes to Teach You One.”

said South-Doyle High School senior Sophie Pedigo. Knoxville News Sentinel: “I believe in freedom of expression completely. And what is happening is very wrong. I think that education, the place where you study, should not be a place where you are afraid of being separated from your family. This is not right. That is why I am here today, because I am completely against it.”

On 20 Tucson, Arizona schools are closed today Due to the participation of many personnel in the strike; The protests are planned to start this afternoon local time.

Support for the strike increased throughout the week. Yeshidagna told the Guardian that neighbors and family members of Good and Pretti had contacted student organizations to share their support for the protests. Hundreds of organizations have thrown their support behind the action, including student groups in other states, unions and large organizational groups including 50501.

“We want to block columns that support the Trump administration,” 50501’s national coordinator Gloriann Sahay told the Guardian. “By showing we are showing that we are more numerous and that we are not afraid of this terror that dominates us.”

Celebrities like Ariana Grande, Macklemore Pedro Pascal He also called for a strike. “When I walked out of class, I saw Ariana publishing our flyer,” Yeshidagna said. “This was crazy. It’s great that it shed light on this.”

Yeshidagna, who grew up in St. Paul, said he attended high school and was 15 minutes away from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. He organized protests as a student and continues to lead protests now. Since Trump sent ICE officers to Minnesota, he and his peers in student organizations have watched their friends and family members be targeted.

“We are seeing clear racial profiling in Minnesota,” Yeshidagna said. “This is not just an immigration issue. This is also a human rights issue that affects U.S. citizens.”

Friday’s protests coincide with an upcoming partial government shutdown as Senate Democrats and some Republicans say they will oppose any spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Democrats are pushing for several reform measures, including banning agents from wearing masks and requiring ICE to issue arrest warrants.