ICE protests: Minnesotans urged not to work or shop in economic blackout over surge of immigration agents – live | US news
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Michael Sainato
A “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout protest day was launched Friday by community leaders, faith leaders, and labor unions to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increase in the state.
The “Truth and Freedom Day” protest follows the killing of unarmed woman Renee Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Their demands They include ICE leaving Minnesota, holding the ICE officer who killed Good legally accountable, ending additional federal funding for ICE, and investigating the agency for civil rights and constitutional violations.
Dozens of local businesses in Minnesota announced It is closed for solidarity purposes. Minneapolis City Council approved day of action and general strike. The day of action will end with a march in Minneapolis city center at 14:00 local time.
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), told the Guardian: “We will have dangerously cold weather on Friday – wind chills of -10F. Highs will be -10F and wind chills down to -20F.”
“We are a northern state and we are built to withstand the cold and we will emerge, but people will need to pay attention not just to the march, but to what people are doing, to the individual stories of solidarity.”
Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s federation of more than 1,000 affiliated local unions approved Dozens of local labor unions were also present on the day of action.
Minnesota prepares for anti-immigration enforcement protests on Friday
Hello, welcome to the live blog of US politics. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will bring you the latest news.
We start with this news A broad network of labor unions, progressive organizations and clergy are urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and stores on Friday to protest the state’s immigration enforcement.
“We really want ICE to leave Minnesota, and they’re not going to leave Minnesota unless there’s a lot of pressure on them,” said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of more than 100 groups taking action. “They should not be wandering any street in our country as they are now.”
The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have seen daily protests since Renee Good was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a sting operation on Jan. 7, the AP reported.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents nearly 2 million service and healthcare workers across the United States, is leading calls for participation across the country.
“Martin Luther King wrote to Cesar Chavez during the Great Boycott and said that our separate struggles were actually one,” David Huerta, president of SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW) and SEIU California, said Sunday. Politics Nation with Pastor Al Sharpton on MS Now.
“Now more than ever, we are seeing our civil rights, our workers’ rights, and our immigrant rights. […] “They are in harmony with each other.”
He added: “As we look at Minneapolis — the violence and cruelty this federal government has committed against employees — now more than ever, we need to stand together regardless of our differences.”
Friday’s mobilization was planned as the largest coordinated protest action to date; It included a walk through downtown Minneapolis despite dangerously cold temperatures, with the National Weather Service predicting single to double digits below zero (-20 to -30C).
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