Thousands protest against ICE campaign across the US
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis and students across the United States went on strike to demand that federal immigration officials withdraw from Minnesota following the fatal shooting of two US citizens.
Friday’s protests come as the Justice Department launched an investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis last Saturday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed at a press conference that the Justice Department’s civil rights division is working with the FBI to investigate whether police officers violated Pretti’s civil rights in the incident.
Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who worked at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, was shot and killed during an operation by federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security.
Following the incident, video footage was published on both traditional and social media, contradicting DHS’s initial statements that Pretti had threatened officials with a gun.
DHS chief Kristi Noem immediately referred to Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” which angered Pretti’s friends and family.
Pretti’s death and the actions of federal officials to enforce immigration policy sparked outrage and protests in Minnesota and across the country; Many people criticized the attack, describing it as an execution.
Students and teachers walked out of classes from California to New York on a day of national protest on Friday; This protest comes amid mixed messages about whether the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge will ease tensions.
Under a national immigration crackdown, President Donald Trump sent 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis area to patrol the streets in tactical gear, a force five times the size of the Minneapolis Police Department.
Several thousand people, including families with young children, elderly couples and young community activists, gathered in sub-zero temperatures in downtown Minneapolis to protest the surge and the tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a Minneapolis neighborhood near where Pretti and Renee Good were fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month, about 50 teachers and staff from local schools joined the march.
Rock star Bruce Springsteen lent his voice to the protest by performing at a fundraiser for Good and Pretti in downtown Minneapolis.
He played his new song, Streets of Minneapolis, which he wrote in response to the deaths, with the words “Arrest the President” stuck to his guitar.
“No jobs. No schools. No shopping. Stop funding ICE,” a slogan appeared on the organizers’ website, Nationalshutdown.org, listing 250 sites for Friday’s protests in 46 states and major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington.
Public schools in Aurora, Colorado, closed Friday due to expected large teacher and student absences. The Denver suburb saw massive immigration raids last year after Trump claimed it was a “war zone” overrun by Venezuelan gangs.
At least 20 schools in Tucson, Arizona, canceled classes due to mass absenteeism of students and staff.
Strikes were planned at 90 high schools in Georgia. On the campus of DePaul University in Chicago, protesters chanted slogans and held signs such as “sacred campus” and “fascists not welcome here.”
High school students carrying anti-ice signs walked out of class in Long Beach, California.
In New York, a long parade of high school-age protesters marched through downtown Brooklyn chanting obscene anti-ICE slogans.
Weeks of viral videos showing aggressive tactics by heavily armed and masked agents on the streets of Minneapolis have driven public approval of Trump’s immigration policy to the lowest level of his second term, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
As turmoil grew over the ICE operation, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was dispatched to Minneapolis, saying his officers would turn to more targeted operations rather than broad street sweeps that led to clashes with protesters.
Trump said earlier this week that he wanted to “de-escalate some of the tension,” but on Friday the president repeated his accusation that protesters in Minnesota were rioters.
with dpa
