Tens of Thousands March in Minnesota and Hundreds of Businesses Close to Protest ICE

Some businesses closed for the day to protest the Trump administration’s tactics, and 100 clergy members were arrested at a sit-in.

January 23, 2026 at 6:01 p.m. EST

By Lauren Kaori Gurley, Justine McDaniel, Natalie Allison, Michelle Boorstein and Ben Brasch

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people converged at a downtown park on Friday afternoon in the state’s biggest show of opposition yet to the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota, braving subzero temperatures and skipping work and school.

Hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities closed for the day of action, an effort organized by faith leaders and labor unions amid continuing tensions over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the state, including the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer earlier this month.

On Friday morning, about 100 clergy members were arrested at a peaceful sit-in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport protesting deportation flights. Labor leaders said more than 15,600 people had claimed tickets to the 2 p.m. march in Minneapolis — where the National Weather Service warned of minus-50 degree wind chill through Sunday morning.

Bundled in down coats, beanies and ski goggles, demonstrators chanted “What do we want? ICE out!” and held signs bearing slogans such as “No MN Nice for ICE” and “Leave Us Alone!” as they marched peacefully.

“This rally says it all. We’re fighting for truth and freedom,” said Mary Turner, a night-shift nurse in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and a union member who joined the march.

Residents opposed to ICE’s actions in Minnesota say federal agents have gone far beyond their mission of removing undocumented criminals since starting operations there two months ago, instead detaining U.S. citizens, pulling people from their cars, appearing to stop people on the basis of race, and using chemical irritants on people demonstrating against or monitoring their work.

This week, the third since Good’s Jan. 7 killing, tension remained elevated. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the Minnesota governor and other officials, all Democrats; a 5-year-old was detained with his father in their driveway in a Minneapolis suburb; and the federal government arrested three activists in connection with a protest that disrupted a Sunday morning church service.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered two of the charged activists to be released pending trial, rejecting government arguments in favor of keeping them jailed. Prosecutors had sought to portray one of the activists as a flight risk based, in part, on the fact that FBI agents had observed her rolling through a stop sign in the days before her arrest.

The Trump administration has defended its work as arresting criminals it calls dangerous and has characterized opposed residents as agitators getting in the way of the work of law enforcement.

Friday’s protest also aimed to slow economic activity through a spending boycott. On Lake Street, a major commercial corridor in South Minneapolis that was devastated by riots following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, dozens of shops, salons, cafes and restaurants had the lights off Friday, with signage notifying customers of their participation in the economic blackout.

The goal, said Ruth Kashmark, who closed her bar Friday to participate, is to demonstrate that “this is what the world’s going to look like if you take our hardworking neighbors away.”

Friday is normally one of Kashmark’s busiest days at the 620 Club in St. Paul, but she wanted to show solidarity with nearby immigrant-run businesses that have shut down or reduced work. “We’ll take the loss,” she said.

Some coffee shops planned to open without doing business to provide spaces for march attendees and ICE observers to warm up, offering free coffee and sign-making materials. One brewery planned to provide free hot dogs all day. Other businesses stayed open but put up signs in support of the protests or pledged to donate revenue to local nonprofits. Prayer vigils were also planned across the state.

Minneapolis’s Temple Israel synagogue was filled Friday morning with clergy, elected leaders and others for an interfaith service to launch the day of striking, marching and activism. Marcia Zimmerman, senior rabbi, declared that “history is on our side,” before lighting a candle in the synagogue’s sanctuary of remembrance for Good and people who have died in federal detention.

Washington’s Episcopal bishop, Mariann Budde, a former Minneapolis priest and prominent critic of President Donald Trump who traveled to Minnesota for Friday’s march, said the administration’s actions were not isolated to that state.

“What I and others can do is connect the dots between the scale and deliberate cruelty here with what has been taking place across the country,” she said.

The airport protest earlier in the day sought to call on airlines to halt cooperation with government deportation flights from the facility, a spokesperson for Faith in Minnesota said. The arrests occurred peacefully after about an hour of protest in front of the airport’s Terminal 1 by singing and praying clergy members.

Police arrested about 100 people who were charged with misdemeanors for trespassing and failure to comply with law enforcement, and released from custody, said Jeff Lea, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which had advance notice of the demonstration from its organizers.

At the march, protesters filled city blocks, along with covered skyways that connect buildings along the street, as they headed for the Target Center, a sports arena. Charles Knutson held a workers union flag.

“I’m here to support the fact that ICE needs to get out of Minnesota,” said Knutson, a security guard for a wastewater plant in Farmington, Minnesota.

Princess, 24, who declined to give her last name out of fear of retaliation from the government, called out of her job as a paralegal to attend the demonstration. A U.S. citizen, she was born in Liberia before her family immigrated to the United States and grew up in Minnesota.

“ICE terrorizing and trying to outcast individuals is wrong, and that’s why I’m here,” Princess said. “A lot of people have tolerated enough and they’re ready to put their foot down and stand up for what they believe in.”

The Trump administration has sent federal agents into other cities, including Chicago and Charlotte, where they arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants and disrupted daily life. Their operations — and residents’ reactions — have been particularly intense in the Twin Cities following Good’s killing.

That prompted angry residents to protest and the administration to send more federal agents to Minnesota, escalating tensions. A week after the killing, on Jan. 14, an ICE officer shot 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg before arresting him and two other undocumented men at their home.

Several court challenges to the Trump administration’s actions are before federal judges. A federal judge in one suit last week barred Department of Homeland Security agents from arresting peaceful protesters, but this week an appeals court temporarily lifted that restriction while the litigation continues.

On X this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem claimed without providing evidence that the agency had arrested more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants in Minneapolis. The Washington Post was unable to verify Noem’s number.

“The fact that those groups want to shut down Minnesota’s economy, which provides law-abiding American citizens an honest living, to fight for illegal alien murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, drug dealers, and terrorists says everything you need to know,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to The Post on the general strike.

As demonstrators reached the Target Center arena, where speakers were set to address the crowd, the mood was upbeat. A jazz band played as hundreds of people danced in the lobby, including some in costume.

Dressed in a pink axolotl costume complete with an air pump to keep it inflated, Mark — who traveled from Wisconsin and declined to give his last name out of fear of retaliation from his employer — waited in a long line to enter the stadium.

“It feels festive,” he said, “but angry.”

McDaniel, Allison, Brasch and Boorstein reported from Washington. Jeremy Roebuck in Washington contributed to this report.