Minnesota Stages Economic Blackout To Protest ICE 

ICE’s occupation of Minnesota has been disastrous to say the least. Minnesota residents already weren’t thrilled to have ICE and Border Patrol in their backyard, and that feeling only intensified after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good. 

In the weeks since Renee Good’s shooting, there have been constant protests, which escalated on Friday to a “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout day.

According to The Guardian, numerous businesses across Minnesota announced closures on Friday in solidarity with the “Day of Truth & Freedom” protests. The protest is organized around three demands: ICE leaves Minnesota, Jonathan Ross is held legally accountable for shooting Renee Good, and ICE is investigated for violating human rights and the Constitution. A march will be held in downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon. 

“I think what generated the idea for this action comes out of the need to figure out what we can meaningfully do to stop it,” Kieran Knutson, the president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 in Minneapolis, told the Guardian last week. “The government in the state of Minnesota has not offered any path towards stopping these attacks, this violence.”

Several local business owners spoke to NBC News about their decision to close their doors and join the protests on Friday. “Everyone is welcome here, except I.C.E.,” reads a sign on Wrecktangle Pizza. Jeff Rogers, one of the owners of Wrecktangle Pizza, told NBC News that ICE’s presence is not only hurting the community but also damaging the local economy. 

“It’s tearing our restaurant community apart … everyone’s seen all the evidence of all this bulls—. It’s horrific and not something we condone,” Rogers told NBC News. 

Beckett’s, a Minnesota sports bar, also plans to close its doors in support of the protest. One of the managers, who asked not to be named to protect his employees, told NBC News that ICE’s presence has disrupted his business and directly impacted his workers. 

“We have one of our head cooks who hasn’t come in for a month now because he’s afraid. We’re all just supporting him. We also have other cooks that also are worried about it, but they need to pay their bills,” he said of his immigrant co-workers.

What’s crazy is that the actions of ICE and Border Patrol show that it doesn’t matter if you’re here legally and went about the process “the right way,” as they like to say. ICE is terrorizing American citizens and engaging in blatant racial profiling. They were even willing to use a five-year-old boy to bait an immigrant father. It’s gotten so bad that Minnesota Police held a news conference this week where they detailed several instances of off-duty members of law enforcement being racially profiled by ICE agents. If police officers are feeling the impact of ICE’s authoritarian tactics, what hope does a line cook who might have an accent have? 

One of the more notable aspects of the protest is that it’s taking place during one of Minnesota’s coldest days in seven years. Despite temperatures projected to reach minus 20 degrees, Minnesotans are still out in force to protest.

“We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up, but folks are going to need to pay attention to not just the march, but what people are doing, the individual stories of solidarity that people are going to be doing,” Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, told the Guardian.

SEE ALSO:

ICE Memo: Agents Can Enter Homes Without Judge’s Warrant

Minnesota Police: ICE Is Racially Profiling Off-Duty Cops Of Color