MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Thousands of people have been gathering outside the U.S. Bank Stadium amid subzero temperatures for a march against the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
Organizers were seen handing hand-warmers to demonstrators as they shouted “ICE out,” waved American flags and carried signs calling for ICE to leave their city and for the arrest of the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7.
In the morning, video posted on social media showed thousands of people gathered outside the Minneapolis airport, forming a picket line so long it spanned the length of the terminal for departing flights. As they all chanted “ICE out” in unison, the action served as a precursor for a statewide “ICE Out” day of protest in the afternoon. Groups, including clergy, immigrant groups and labor unions, had exhorted residents to support the protest and not shop nor attend school or work.
Some businesses across the Twin Cities were closed on Friday and some business owners previously told NBC News they would be attending the rally. Protesters will march from downtown’s common gardens to the Target Center arena.
KARE, NBC’s affiliate in Minneapolis, captured video of demonstrators being zip-tied and loaded into yellow school buses by police officers after participating in the airport protests. Organizers told KARE that about 100 people were detained. Airport officials told KARE law enforcement took action after the protest’s “permitted activity went beyond the agreed-upon terms.”
The Trump administration has sent more than 3,000 federal immigration personnel to Minneapolis since December in what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge, resulting in confrontations and clashes with residents opposing the immigration actions.
Over the past six weeks, officers have apprehended more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a statement to NBC News Thursday evening, a DHS spokesperson criticized Friday’s protests saying, “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.”
Operation Metro Surge came after a YouTube video by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley went viral that alleged massive fraud at child care centers in the state owned by Somali immigrants. The video generated fierce and renewed attention on a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department into an alleged $250 million fraud scheme in Minnesota. The scheme involved some members of Minnesota’s Somali community.
At the protest on Friday, Abdi Hassan, 19, a Somali American who’s been in the U.S. since he was two years old, said that in recent weeks he’s had friends racially profiled by ICE. He takes his ID everywhere he goes, he said,“or I might just be snatched up for no reason…it’s been scary lately. It’s terrifying.”
“We’re not just scams,” he said. “That’s a lot of lies on us.”
The immigration operation has been fiercely criticized by some of the state’s residents and groups and local officials, including Democratic governor, Tim Walz and the Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. This week, the Justice Department sent subpoenas to Walz, Frey and other state leaders, escalating its investigation into whether they conspired to impede immigration operations.
Tensions flared earlier this month after the fatal shooting of Good, an unarmed U.S. citizen, by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who federal officials have said was acting in self-defense.
On Thursday, Homeland Security and FBI agents arrested three protesters in connection with a demonstration that interrupted Sunday service at a church in St. Paul. That same day, news broke that four children had been apprehended by immigration authorities in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old boy.
Border Patrol and ICE officials said at a press conference on Friday that the father had fled on foot as they were trying to arrest him and had left the boy. Officials have said the father and the boy have been reunited at the detention facility in Texas.
Matt Lavietes reported from Minneapolis and Nicole Acevedo from New York.
Suzanne Gamboa contributed.
