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From Business Closures to Student Walkouts, Communities Across US Demand: 'ICE Out!'
Many of Friday's actions were organized by student groups in Minnesota—a flashpoint of Trump's assault on immigrant families and those protesting ICE abuses—and backed by organizations across the country, from the North Carolina Poor People's Campaign to the Boston Education Justice Alliance.
"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," organizers said. "On Friday, January 30, join a nationwide day of no school, no work, and no shopping."
"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," they continued. "Every day, ICE, Border Patrol, and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda 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!"
High school students are among those set to participate in Friday's mass demonstrations. The Sacramento Bee reported that students "planning a district-wide walkout Friday morning, joining a nationwide student effort to protest immigration enforcement following fatal shootings in Minneapolis."
"This is a peaceful walkout demonstration to show that the students in California’s capital do not stand with ICE,” Michael Heffron, a student organizer, told the local newspaper. “It’s also to show solidarity to those in Minnesota—the protesters who have been killed, those who have been injured for standing up for their own civil rights.”
Additionally, hundreds of businesses nationwide, including in Maine and Minnesota, are closing their doors Friday—or donating their proceeds for the day to groups that support immigrant communities—as part of the protest against ICE as federal agents continue their lawless rampage.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said he is "not at all" pulling back ICE activities in Minnesota, even after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Friday's actions come amid a high-stakes fight over ICE reforms on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked an appropriations bill that included $10 billion for ICE, and the Democratic leadership reached a deal with the Trump White House to extend Department of Homeland Security funding at current levels—with no reforms—for two weeks while negotiations move forward.
Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for MoveOn Civic Action, condemned the agreement, saying in a statement that "Leader Schumer should ask the Minnesotans who are watching their neighbors get killed in cold blood if a deal with no plan to stop ICE is enough right now.”
Friday's protests will be followed by more demonstrations on Saturday under the banner, "ICE Out of Everywhere."
“We are responding to people’s outrage. We’ve seen the Overton window shifting,” said Gloriann Sahay, a national coordinator with 50501, which organized Saturday's actions. “We’re seeing people from typically non-political spectrums get involved in this conversation and say: ‘This doesn’t feel like America.’”
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