<\/p>\n
Activists have called for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating \u201cno work, no school, no shopping\u201d in a protest against the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s sweeping immigration crackdowns.<\/p>\n Organizers say Friday\u2019s \u201cblackout\u201d \u2013 or general strike, as some are calling it \u2013 is part of a growing nonviolent movement to combat ICE\u2019s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents.<\/p>\n Those deaths include Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis, Keith Porter<\/a> in Los Angeles and Silverio Villegas Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a> in Illinois. Friday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are calling for this strike because we believe what we have been doing in Minnesota<\/a> should go national,\u201d said Kidus Yeshidagna, president of the Ethiopian Students Union at the University of Minnesota and one of the students organizing the strike.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need more people and lawmakers across the country to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019 activities.<\/p>\n The student groups \u2013 including the associations representing Black, Somali, Liberian, Ethiopian and Eritrean students and the graduate labor union \u2013 first gathered on 21 January to plan the calls for local and national strikes. \u201cWe came out in huge numbers despite the cold,\u201d he said, referencing last week\u2019s actions. \u201cWe are now doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n From restaurants and clothing retailers to bookstores and coffee shops, businesses across dozens of cities have announced that they are closed.<\/p>\n Protesters in Philadelphia, New York, Boise and Columbus are gathering at city halls, courthouses, statehouses and legislative buildings, according to an action tracker<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n In Minnesota, where tens of thousands turned out for economic actions<\/a> and a rally<\/a> last Friday to protest ICE\u2019s surge in the city, some businesses have closed for the day while others say they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n Bench Pressed, a letter press and retail shop in Minneapolis<\/a>, 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 \u201cFuck ICE\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cPost Modern Times\u201d until the ICE surge is over, refusing to generate taxable income to fund the government that is brutalizing the city.<\/p>\n Elliott Payne, the Minneapolis city council president, posted<\/a> a video after stopping by a local high school walkout, writing: \u201cOur kids are leading the way and it\u2019s our job to stand with them and make a better world possible for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Students in Knoxville, Tennessee, walked out of their classes this morning to join an \u201cICE Out\u201d protest<\/a>, organized by Indivisible Knoxville. In a video<\/a> originally posted by the Democratic representative Gloria Johnson, students and adults chant and hold signs with messages saying \u201cDefund ICE\u201d and \u201cSkipping Our Lessons to Teach You One\u201d.<\/p>\n Sophie Pedigo, a senior at South-Doyle high school, told the Knoxville News Sentinel<\/a>: \u201cI fully believe in freedom of speech. And what\u2019s 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\u2019s just not right. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m here today, because I\u2019m fully against that.\u201d<\/p>\n Over 20 Tucson, Arizona, schools are closed today<\/a> as several staffers are participating in the strike; actions are planned to begin this afternoon local time.<\/p>\n Online, footage spread of high school students in places including San Antonio, Texas<\/a>, and Salt Lake City, Utah<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Volunteers with the People\u2019s 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\u2019s protest in New York City\u2019s Foley Square.<\/p>\n \u201cThree weeks ago, no one considered, or even thought of the word \u2018general strike\u2019 as having any relevance in the US context, and now it\u2019s the one thing on everyone\u2019s minds,\u201d said Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the People\u2019s Forum. \u201cNot just as a figment of imagination, but as a real tool for how people fight back against this fascist regime in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n De Los Santos, who is an immigrant, has been working in the immigrant rights space for \u201cas long as I can remember\u201d. He acknowledged that organizers in Minneapolis have provided a huge source of inspiration over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt an added sense of responsibility to not leave these brave fighters, these brave people, alone as they face ICE in Minnesota,\u201d he said. Santos also sees today\u2019s protest as preparation for if and when ICE agents activate large-scale operations in more cities across the country.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, have thrown their support behind the action.<\/p>\n