Activists have called for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns.
Organizers say Friday’s “blackout” – or general strike, as some are calling it – is part of a growing nonviolent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents.
Those deaths include Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Keith Porter in Los Angeles and Silverio Villegas González in Illinois. Friday’s national protest leaders, many of them students at the University of Minnesota, are calling for ICE to leave the city after its nearly month-long operation. They say economic pressure through work stoppages and consumer boycotts is just one way to demand accountability and reform.
“We are calling for this strike because we believe what we have been doing in Minnesota should go national,” said Kidus Yeshidagna, president of the Ethiopian Students Union at the University of Minnesota and one of the students organizing the strike.
“We need more people and lawmakers across the country to wake up.”
Yeshidagna is part of a coalition of student groups that organized the Minnesota shutdown last Friday, in which thousands of people flooded the streets in sub-zero temperatures and hundreds of businesses shut their doors to demand justice for Good, who was shot by an ICE agent while trying to protect a neighbor. Last weekend, agents killed Pretti, another resident who was observing agents’ activities.
The student groups – including the associations representing Black, Somali, Liberian, Ethiopian and Eritrean students and the graduate labor union – first gathered on 21 January to plan the calls for local and national strikes. “We came out in huge numbers despite the cold,” he said, referencing last week’s actions. “We are now doing it again.”
From restaurants and clothing retailers to bookstores and coffee shops, businesses across dozens of cities have announced that they are closed.
Protesters in Philadelphia, New York, Boise and Columbus are gathering at city halls, courthouses, statehouses and legislative buildings, according to an action tracker. Students at high schools and colleges in Florida, California and other states are staging walkouts. In Milwaukee and in Buffalo, Wyoming, people are gathering at parks and on street corners.
In Minnesota, where tens of thousands turned out for economic actions and a rally last Friday to protest ICE’s surge in the city, some businesses have closed for the day while others say they’re staying open under different models, either donating revenue from the day or providing free coffee and a place for people in the community to rest safely.
Bench Pressed, a letter press and retail shop in Minneapolis, is open and donating all profits from Friday to people in the community who need help paying rent, which is due this weekend for February. Little Joy Coffee in Northfield, south of Minneapolis, is selling a $5 “Fuck ICE” honey and cinnamon latte with all proceeds going to mutual aid funds, and has supplies for people to screen-print items with anti-ICE messages and to reach out to their representatives.
Modern Times, a cafe in Minneapolis, has indefinitely switched to a free, donation-based model and is closed on Friday to join the general strike. The business said it would be referred to as “Post Modern Times” until the ICE surge is over, refusing to generate taxable income to fund the government that is brutalizing the city.
Elliott Payne, the Minneapolis city council president, posted a video after stopping by a local high school walkout, writing: “Our kids are leading the way and it’s our job to stand with them and make a better world possible for them.”
Students in Knoxville, Tennessee, walked out of their classes this morning to join an “ICE Out” protest, organized by Indivisible Knoxville. In a video originally posted by the Democratic representative Gloria Johnson, students and adults chant and hold signs with messages saying “Defund ICE” and “Skipping Our Lessons to Teach You One”.
Sophie Pedigo, a senior at South-Doyle high school, told the Knoxville News Sentinel: “I fully believe in freedom of speech. And what’s happening is so wrong, and I feel like education, the place where you get your education, should not be somewhere that you should be scared of being ripped from your family. That’s just not right. And that’s why I’m here today, because I’m fully against that.”
Over 20 Tucson, Arizona, schools are closed today as several staffers are participating in the strike; actions are planned to begin this afternoon local time.
Online, footage spread of high school students in places including San Antonio, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah, participating in the walkouts. Hundreds of New York City high school students marched towards a downtown park as a part of the day of action.
Volunteers with the People’s Forum, a New York-based non-profit centered on political education and organizing, have been shoveling snow in preparation for the thousands of attendees anticipated to show up at today’s protest in New York City’s Foley Square.
“Three weeks ago, no one considered, or even thought of the word ‘general strike’ as having any relevance in the US context, and now it’s the one thing on everyone’s minds,” said Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the People’s Forum. “Not just as a figment of imagination, but as a real tool for how people fight back against this fascist regime in Washington.”
De Los Santos, who is an immigrant, has been working in the immigrant rights space for “as long as I can remember”. He acknowledged that organizers in Minneapolis have provided a huge source of inspiration over the last few weeks.
“We felt an added sense of responsibility to not leave these brave fighters, these brave people, alone as they face ICE in Minnesota,” he said. Santos also sees today’s protest as preparation for if and when ICE agents activate large-scale operations in more cities across the country.
The neighbors and family members of Good and Pretti contacted the student organizations to share their support for the protests, Yeshidagna said. Hundreds of organizations, including student groups in other states, unions and major organizing groups, including 50501, have thrown their support behind the action.
“We want to obstruct the pillars that are upholding the Trump administration,” Gloriann Sahay, a national coordinator with 50501, said. “By showing up, we are showing we are more in number and that we are not afraid of this terror being rained down upon us.”
Yeshidagna, who grew up in St Paul, said he was in high school and 15 minutes away from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. He protested as a student and continues to lead protests now. Since Trump sent ICE officers to Minnesota, he and his peers in the student organizations have watched his friends and family members be targeted.
“We’ve been seeing clear racial profiling in Minnesota,” Yeshidagna said. “This isn’t just an immigrant issue. This is a human rights issue that is also affecting US citizens.”
Friday’s protests coincide with a looming partial government shutdown as Senate Democrats – and some Republicans – have said they will oppose any spending bill that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Democrats are pushing for a variety of reform measures, including banning agents from wearing masks and having ICE obtain warrants to make arrests.
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