Hundreds of Minnesota businesses close to protest ICE presence
Hundreds of businesses in Minnesota closed their doors on Friday and thousands of protesters demonstrated in freezing temperatures as part of an economic protest against the state’s immigration crackdown.
The widespread rallies came after organizers called on residents to skip work or school and avoid shopping in a show of opposition to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The ICE operation ordered by the Trump administration in the state has been ongoing for more than six weeks.
The administration described it as a public security operation aimed at deporting criminals to the country illegally. Critics warn that immigrants and U.S. citizens without criminal records are also detained.
On Friday, nearly 100 clergy were arrested at the Minneapolis airport while staging a protest calling on US airlines to refuse to transport detainees detained by ICE.
“We want ICE out of Minnesota, and we want ICE out of every state with its overreach,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, owner of Faith in Action, an organization that supported local partners in Minneapolis during the strike. “We want Congress to stand up and provide oversight to ICE.”
Thousands of federal officers were deployed to Minnesota as part of “Operation Metro Surge.”
The killing of 37-year-old Minneapolis woman Renee Good earlier this month sparked statewide protests and condemnation from local officials.
Thousands of people marched downtown in -10F (-23C) temperatures, where they headed to the city’s NBA arena to hold an anti-ICE rally.
Protesters chanted and played music as they prepared to go inside for a rally at the Minnesota Timberwolves’ home turf.
On Friday morning, Minneapolis resident Corey Lamb closed his business, Harriet Grove Botanicals, and joined the protest. He objected to the presence of ICE agents in his city and was outraged by Good’s death in early January.
He also saw immigration raids as an economic threat to his business and others in his community.
“We have a lot of friends we trust, a lot of businesses we trust to make our business work,” Lamb told the BBC.
“As these individuals struggle because they’re afraid of being detained or disappeared, it’s impacting not only morally, but also economically on what’s going on here and also in the Midwest.”
Hundreds more joined Lamb’s business, from restaurants to tattoo parlors to toy stores.
Kim Bartmann owns six restaurants in Minneapolis; four of these remain open in the winter but are closed on Friday.
While he supports the cause, he said the decision to join was a difficult one given the costs.
“Everyone is in solidarity, but everyone needs to buy food and pay their rent,” he said, noting that staff at one of his locations initially wanted to stay open before deciding the risk of backlash for not participating would be too great.
“Economically, this was a serious blow to my business,” he said.
It said sales at its restaurants, which include Barbette and Gigi’s Café, had already fallen more than 30% in the past three weeks as a result of the ICE operation, leading it to limit operating hours as customers and staff stayed home.
“We have a lot of employees who are U.S. citizens or have paperwork to work in the U.S. and are still afraid to leave their homes,” he said.
ICE’s presence enraged many Minnesota residents, who protested its operations and other federal officers operating in their city.
This week, school officials in suburban Columbia Heights announced that four students, ages five to 17, were detained by ICE.
A two-year-old boy was also detained on Thursday while returning home from a grocery store in south Minneapolis with his undocumented father, according to BBC’s US partner CBS.
