“No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE,” reads the nationalshutdown.org website. It calls for a national day of strikes today (Friday) to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country – to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN,” it added.
During the recent Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Minn., ICE and federal border agents have shot and killed two U.S. citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – resulting in widespread backlash. Even some Republicans have broken ranks with President Donald Trump and his administration over the operation.
In particular, attempts by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy/Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller to paint Pretti, a VA nurse, as a “domestic terrorist” have sparked outrage. Since Good’s death on Dec. 7, protestors in Minneapolis have been out in dangerous cold to stand against ICE’s presence in the city.
Republican Chris Madel, a trial attorney who actually provided legal counsel for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good earlier this month, dropped out of the gubernatorial race in Minnesota this week due to the actions of ICE. He said “I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so,” in an X video. Additionally, Madel slammed ICE for its policy of entering homes without warrants.
Audacy has also reported on ICE reportedly taking children into custody, another move that prompted swift backlash. Polls from Fox News, the Pew Research Center and YouGov all show most Americans have issues with the way ICE is conducting operations, from disapproving of agents wearing face masks to thinking agents are too aggressive and believing that funding for the agency should be cut.
Officials in Minneapolis, Chicago and other major cities where the Trump administration has deployed ICE to crack down on illegal immigration have also declined to aid the federal government. Last September, ICE agents in Chicago shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a father who had just dropped off his child at school.
“We have to seriously look at how local government can ultimately not just bring charges and investigation against the federal overreach, but how we can create a process that allows for prosecution of these individuals,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said this week, following the Pretti shooting.
According to a tracker from the American Prospect, at least eight people have been “murdered” or “caused to die” in the field between last July and this Wednesday as a result of the Trump administration immigration crackdown. That doesn’t include people who have died in immigration prison.
“The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents,” said the national strike website. “While Trump and other right-wing politicians are slandering them as ‘terrorists,’ the video evidence makes it clear beyond all doubt: they were gunned down in broad daylight simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest mass deportation.”
On the national shutdown website, it calls ICE and Border Patrol agents “enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda,” and said they “are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear.”
“It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!” it said.
Fast Company reported that “walkouts, events, vigils, and protests are set to take place in all 50 states, including in New York City, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia – from state capitals (Honolulu) to federal buildings and courthouses (Tucson, Arizona, and Cincinnati), universities (Stanford, Santa Clara University, the University of Washington, Northeastern University), and even some high schools (in Miami).”
It noted that students, particularly university groups in Minnesota, are at the heart of the protest. Many businesses are also taking part.
Supporters of the movement include the band Pearl Jam, which said in a Friday Instagram post that “the Ten Club is closed Friday, January 30 as we stand with the people of Minnesota to protest the actions of ICE and murders of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Sliverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr.” Macklemore also posted in support of the shutdown, as did Hannah Einbinder from the TV show “Hacks”, Pedro Pascal and more.
“National Shutdown Day, like many of the previous national walkouts and protests over the past year, lists a broad coalition of grassroots partners, including: 50501, local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, Defend Immigrant Families Campaign, Council on American-Islamic Relations, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, student groups, labor unions, and immigrant rights organizations,” said Fast Company.
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