Minnesota in a State of Emergency – Protests and General Strikes Today Against ICE Despite Cold and Intimidation

Today is, as the saying goes, a major day of confrontation. Minnesota is preparing for a day that is deliberately meant to be anything but routine. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, the largest coordinated protest action to date against current immigration enforcement is taking shape. Labor unions, civil society groups, communities and churches are calling on people to stay away from work, keep children out of school, and close businesses. Not as a symbolic gesture, but as a collective stop. The reason is an operation that has paralyzed public life for weeks and reached a new level of escalation after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent on January 7.

Since then, not a single day has passed without protests. Federal agents are massively present in the region, securing streets and facing demonstrators who document their movements online and on the ground. The relationship is tense, trust is destroyed. Arrests have become part of the picture. Just on Thursday, a well known civil rights attorney was taken away together with other participants in a protest inside a church. The location was deliberately chosen, and so was the message.

The White House circulated a manipulated image to make the arrest of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong in Minnesota appear more dramatic than it actually was. On the official platform, she was shown crying, hands behind her back, flanked by a person with a badge. But the original image shows a calm and composed woman. Her attorney was present during the arrest and speaks of deliberate falsification aimed at damaging her credibility. For further background, read our article:

The ICE Pastor

Any questions left when the same man appears under oath as the responsible head of an ICE office on the one hand and is publicly listed as a pastor of a congregation on the other - documented, dated, researched, and so far not disputed by any side? read our article >>>

215 cities are organizing solidarity actions today in support of the general strike in Minneapolis. These solidarity actions are an expression of growing mobilization against the massive presence of the federal ICE police and the deadly firearm of an ICE agent, and they are connected to the planned Day of Truth & Freedom – the call for an economic standstill in Minnesota, in which people are to suspend work, school and shopping in protest. The solidarity actions in other cities show how resistance is spreading nationwide and how the strike could generate force and momentum elsewhere if ICE launches similar operations in other locations.

The mobilization for Friday is larger than anything before. A march through downtown Minneapolis is planned, even though weather services are predicting temperatures between minus twenty and minus thirty degrees Celsius. The cold is real, the warnings are serious. But this is precisely where many see the comparison: When a snow emergency is declared, Minnesota adjusts daily life. No one pretends that nothing is happening. This is exactly the attitude the organizers are now demanding in response to what they describe as a permanent threat to their communities. No business as usual, no routine.

The economic consequences are already being felt. Especially small, often migrant run businesses are losing customers because people are staying home out of fear of checks. Many cafes and restaurants have announced that they will voluntarily close on Friday or donate their revenues. Some are consciously choosing a clean break rather than constantly facing the risk that employees could be suddenly taken away. It is a decision between loss and principle.

Education is also coming to a halt. The University of Minnesota is canceling all in person classes because of the cold, as are the schools in St. Paul. In Minneapolis, classes are canceled for formal reasons, but in practice this also becomes part of the standstill. Churches, mosques, synagogues and temples are joining in. Clergy from different faiths are planning to march, pray and fast together. Not separated by denomination, but shoulder to shoulder.

There was a visit from Washington this week. The vice president met with ICE officials and spoke of necessary cooperation with local authorities. He appealed for peaceful protests. On the streets, it sounds different. There it is not about tone, but about presence, about weapons, about the question of who actually decides how far state power can go. For many, this Friday is not a single day of action, but a turning point. People from other states are traveling in, others are organizing parallel demonstrations in California. The experiences from earlier large scale operations run deep. Clergy speak of fear, of powerlessness, but also of a clear stance. They openly say which side they are on.

Minnesota is not reacting to a single incident, but to weeks of a state of emergency that was supposed to quietly become normalized. Friday is meant to prevent exactly that. Not loud, not decorative, but tangible. Standstill as an answer to a policy that many no longer see as protection, but as a threat. We will of course report directly on the ground and document developments continuously. New information, changes in the situation and further actions will be added promptly.