Businesses Close and Demonstrators March in Cities Across the U.S. in Anti-ICE General Strike

Protests against the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown were held in cities across the U.S. on Friday in a mass demonstration of public outrage following the killings of two people by federal agents amid the aggressive enforcement operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Dozens of businesses closed their doors and tens of thousands of demonstrators were expected to take to the streets from Los Angeles to New York after organizers called for a “national shutdown” day of no school, work, or shopping. Minnesotans held a similar state-wide general strike last week to demand an end to what Minneapolis leaders have described as an “invasion” of federal immigration enforcement officers in the Administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” campaign.

“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country – to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN,” the organizers of Friday’s national day of protests wrote. 

The strike was endorsed by nearly 30 organizations across the country, from labor unions to immigrant advocacy groups to student organizations.

Protests are scheduled to persist into the weekend in Minneapolis, which has become the heart of the anti-ICE movement since the fatal shootings of residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as well as in other cities around the country.

Here’s what to know about Friday’s general strike and the weekend protests to come.

Minneapolis

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Friday morning in the bitter cold outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they chanted, brandished signs, and at times shouted or jeered at federal agents. The building, which houses an immigration court and the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, as well as other federal offices, has become the site of frequent protests in recent weeks as backlash against the Trump Administration’s operations in the city have mounted.

Protestors chanted “We are Minnesota, We Protect Our Neighbors” and demanded that federal prosecutions against “community observers” be dropped against, ICE OUT of MN, the coalition that organized last week’s economic blackout protests, detailed in a release that included quotes from community members who spoke at Friday’s demonstration. 

“I have stood on street corners with my whistle outside of my son’s school, at bus stops. I have organized people to get kids rides to school. I have delivered food to my neighbors. Hearing that the federal government would like to punish Minnesotans for loving our neighbors, I am outraged,” said Jen Arnold, the parent of a second grader in Minneapolis Public Schools, per the organization. “But we will not stop loving our neighbors. And if you want to punish some Minnesotans, punish all of us.”

Dylan Alverson, the owner of Modern Times Cafe in Minneapolis, said, “I am here to represent independent businesses in the city, the state, and across the country. No matter what you believe in right now, as business owners, we can all agree that ICE is bad for business.”

Protesters had largely dispersed from the spot by the afternoon, while in downtown Minneapolis marching demonstrators filled streets and musicians Tom Morello and Bruce Springsteen, who this week released a protest song dedicated to the city, performed at a solidarity concert for Good and Pretti. All proceeds from the event will be given to Good and Pretti’s families. 

Trump told reporters on Thursday that the Administration would not be pulling back its immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota “at all,” despite comments that White House border czar Tom Homan made the same day indicating that a “draw-down” of federal agents was planned. 

“President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it, with your help,” Homan, who took over federal immigration operations in Minneapolis this week, said at a press conference in Minneapolis on Thursday, stating that the enforcement campaign in the area would continue but that he was working to make it “safer, more efficient, by the book.”

The Justice Department has meanwhile opened a civil rights probe into the shooting of Pretti, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday. 

“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Blanche said at a press conference regarding the Department of Justice’s latest release of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche did not provide details on the extent of the probe into Pretti’s killing, but said that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was carrying out a “standard investigation.

The Trump Administration has defended Pretti and Good’s shootings as acts of “self defense,” despite video of both incidents that contradicts federal officials’ accounts. 

A number of protesters have been arrested in Minneapolis in recent days, including dozens of clergy members who demonstrated outside Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport last Friday to call for a halt to deportation flights and several people who participated in protests at a church in the city earlier this month, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon. 

Demonstrations in Minneapolis will continue into the weekend, when a rally and a march are scheduled at Bryant Park Square at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. 

… and across the U.S.

Similar demonstrations are taking place all around the country on Friday.

In New York City, protestors gathered in Union Square on Friday afternoon, holding cardboard signs in winter clothing cheering and singing chants against ICE. Hundreds of people turned out in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, which lies across from the local ICE headquarters and was the site for a planned rally on Friday. 

The city’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has vocally backed abolishing ICE, showed support for the protests in a post on X. 

“Today’s general strike is a direct challenge to ICE’s brutality,” Mamdani wrote. “We reject a system that terrorizes and dares to call it enforcement. Your courage is inspiring the world. The power is with the people.Solidarity with everyone striking.”

Dozens of local businesses announced their plans to shut down Friday in solidarity with the demonstrations in New York City and other cities around the country, from Seattle to Denver to Austin to Washington, D.C. 

Crowds of people also came out to participate in the day of demonstrations in Los Angeles, the site of an immigration crackdown last summer that sparked widespread protests in the city and beyond. Demonstrators outside city hall waved signs that bore slogans such as “melt ICE” and “full rights for all immigrants” and calling for justice for Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old father of two who was killed by an off-duty ICE officer on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. Several museums and cultural hubs in the city also shut down in a show of support, while Variety reported that production for “Grey’s Anatomy” temporarily halted after several crew members said they wouldn’t show up for work. Earlier in the week, more than 1,000 University of California Los Angeles students had already staged a walkout on Wednesday afternoon against ICE. 

Other protests took place on Friday in Seattle, Denver, Austin, and Charlotte, among other localities around the U.S. Among the demonstrators were thousands of students who walked out of classes and workers who declined to show up for their jobs.

Anti-ICE protests are set to extend into the weekend around the country, with national organization 50501 having organized an “ICE Out of Everywhere” day of demonstrations on Saturday to follow Friday’s “national shutdown.”