MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Despite Arctic cold, thousands of demonstrators gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement, while police arrested about 100 clergy members demonstrating at Minnesota’s largest airport.
The protests are part of a growing statewide movement opposing federal immigration operations. Labor unions, progressive groups and faith leaders urged Minnesotans to stay home from work and school and to avoid shopping in solidarity with immigrants.
At Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, clergy protested deportation flights and called on airlines to oppose what the Department of Homeland Security has described as its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation. Police issued misdemeanor citations for trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer before releasing the demonstrators, said Jeff Lea, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
Lea said the arrests occurred outside the main terminal after demonstrators exceeded the bounds of their permit and disrupted airline operations.
The Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said police ordered the group to disperse, but she and others chose to remain and be arrested to show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes. After her brief detention, she planned to return to her church to hold a prayer vigil.
“We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaard said.
Downtown Rally Draws Thousands
In downtown Minneapolis, where temperatures hovered near minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), several thousand people rallied under clear skies.
The Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne, a Unitarian Universalist minister who traveled from Cheyenne, Wyoming, said the cold paled in comparison to what she described as the moral urgency of the moment.
“What’s happening here is clearly immoral,” she said. “It’s definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that’s dangerous to us is not the weather.”
Protests have taken place daily in the Twin Cities since Jan. 7, when Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Since then, federal agents have repeatedly clashed with activists and community members who monitor their movements.
Sam Nelson said he skipped work to attend Friday’s march, noting that he previously attended a Minneapolis high school where federal agents detained someone after class earlier this month — an incident that led to confrontations between officers and bystanders.
“It’s my community,” Nelson said. “Like everyone else, I don’t want ICE on our streets.”
Widespread Solidarity Actions
Organizers said more than 700 businesses across Minnesota closed Friday in solidarity with the protests, including a bookstore in Grand Marais near the Canadian border and the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.
“We’re achieving something historic,” said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of more than 100 groups participating.
FBI Agent Resigns
Meanwhile, an FBI supervisory agent in Minnesota has resigned over the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Good’s killing, according to two people familiar with the matter. The agent stepped down after feeling pressured not to pursue the investigation in a manner she believed aligned with standard FBI practices. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.