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DEMONSTRATORS FLOOD MINNEAPOLIS STREETS AS HUNDREDS OF BUSINESSES
CLOSE TO PROTEST ICE  
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Chris HippensteelTalya MinsbergMaia Coleman and Summer Rabold
January 23, 2026
The New York Times
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_ Thousands of protesters shut down streets throughout
Minneapolis-St. Paul to demand that federal immigration agents end
their weekslong crackdown. Businesses closed in solidarity. _

Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul
on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors., David
Guttenfelder/The New York Times

 

Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis-St. Paul on
Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and
students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration
crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.

The action on Friday, which unfolded in subzero temperatures, was the
most widespread and organized demonstration since federal agents
arrived in Minneapolis more than six weeks ago. It was aimed at
pressuring the federal government to pull thousands of its agents from
the streets.

Businesses, many of them locally owned, closed their doors to halt
economic activity, saying that losing a day’s revenue was worth the
cost to be part of the effort to end the immigration enforcement.

“There’s a time to stand up for things, and this is it,” said
Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, a Minneapolis restaurant
that closed on Friday. “If it takes away from a day of our income,
that is worthwhile.”

The day of protests followed weeks of clashes between Minnesotans and
federal agents, mostly in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. The
immigration operation, which started late last year, has led to some
3,000 arrests, at least two shootings in Minneapolis and chaotic
scenes on the streets.

Calls for the ouster of federal agents have grown from residents and
local officials, especially after a U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good, an American citizen, in
Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Protesters and state officials have also filed
lawsuits
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to restrict the agents’ conduct and to block the surge.

The largest of the protests on Friday descended on downtown
Minneapolis from late afternoon into the early evening, as thousands
marched to the Target Center, the home arena of the state’s two
professional basketball teams. Protesters carried signs and chanted
over and over for ICE to leave the city.

_Thousands marched through the streets of Minneapolis to protest
federal immigration actions in the city.Credit...David
Guttenfelder/The New York Times_

Those in the crowd cited different indignities that drove them to the
streets. Ms. Good’s killing. The aggressive tactics deployed by
federal agents against demonstrators. The viral image of a
five-year-old boy detained by ICE alongside his father.

“I got emotional,” said Butchy Austin, a founder of Brass
Solidarity, a racial justice activist street band, as he looked at the
crowd of thousands. “There’s resistance and a level of fight, but
it’s a fight stemming from love for our neighbors.”

Mr. Austin said the group, which formed after the murder of George
Floyd in 2020, came out to the Target Center on Friday afternoon
because they have seen “how music can bring resistance and joy, and
a message of hope and change.”

Emerson Johnson, 19, had planned to come to the Twin Cities for the
weekend. When she saw posters on her college campus about the march in
downtown Minneapolis, she called her sister to push up her trip. “If
you’re seeing the violence — and some of the things you are seeing
are literally evil — I don’t know how you could see that and
ignore it,” she said.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of
Teachers, delivered an impassioned speech at the Target Center,
praising Minnesotans for taking a day away from their typical
activities to make their voices heard.

“We are meeting ICE violence with nonviolence,” she said. “We
are meeting their chaos and cruelty with passion and community.

Hundreds demonstrated at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport earlier on
Friday, some from as far away as New York, flitting in and out of one
of its terminals to stay warm.

Inside, protesters shared hot chocolate and hand warmers, and compared
the layers of clothes they used to brave the bitter cold. After
warming up enough to face the elements, they returned to the sidewalk,
while police officers warned them to stay out of the street or they
would face arrest.

At one point, a group of clergy stepped off the curb, knelt on the
pavement and began to pray.

“Everybody’s got a right to live and before this campaign fails,
we’ll all go down to jail,” they sang. Protesters, many wearing
snow suits and ski goggles, cheered as police arrested a few dozen of
the clergy and loaded them onto buses.

That protests on Friday were part of general strike organized by
residents, faith leaders and labor unions. The purpose, according to
organizers, was to demonstrate the resolve of residents.

In neighborhoods around Minneapolis, many businesses and shops sat
empty, with some posting signs in their windows expressing solidarity.

In St. Paul, Roots Roasting had an orange sign announcing their
closing. “General strike,” it read. “No work, no school, no
shopping, ICE out.”

Down the street, Spyhouse Coffee, part of a local chain, had a
handwritten sign announcing its closure to “stand in solidarity with
our community and other businesses.” The same was true for just
about every coffee mainstay in the Twin Cities.

One of the few open was Misfit in Minneapolis, which occupies a large
warehouse like building west of downtown. The owner, Marcus Parkansky,
said his way of participating in the strike was to offer only coffee,
pastries and espresso shots free of charge. Thanks to a donation from
a woman in Texas, there will also be a bottle of bourbon and a bottle
of Baileys, for those who want to spike their cup.

Mr. Parkansky said he hoped the strike shows the federal government
how organized Minneapolis is. “What we want to see is for the
shenanigans to stop,” he said.

Word of Friday’s strike and protests spread “like a wildfire” in
the preceding days, said Jake Anderson, an executive board member with
the St. Paul Federation of Educators, a union representing teachers
and educational support professionals. Hundreds of businesses, mostly
in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said they would close
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On Friday, it seemed as though many followed through on that promise.

Federal officials have said that their presence is necessary to find
people in the country illegally and to root out fraud in the state’s
social services system. They have stood by their interactions with
protesters and defended the ICE agent who killed Ms. Good.

The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office characterized Ms.
Good’s death as a homicide, the result of gunshot wounds. It made no
judgment on whether the shooting was justified.

Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for the Good family, said in a
statement on Friday that “we are still waiting for their full report
and hope that they communicate with Renee’s family and share their
report before releasing any further information to the public.”

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said
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that the Trump administration wanted to “turn down the
temperature” in Minneapolis. Mr. Vance, who said he had traveled to
the city to understand the tensions, called protesters “far-left
agitators” who had harassed federal agents. He also said a
“failure of cooperation” by state and local officials was to blame
for the situation getting “out of hand.”

In an email on Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security official
called the strike “beyond insane,” asking, “Why would these
labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their
communities?” The official then included a list of undocumented
immigrants who had apparently been convicted of serious crimes.

Minnesota has 17 Fortune 500 companies. But they have not spoken
publicly about the federal immigration activity, and none of
Minnesota’s 15 biggest employers, including Target, UnitedHealth
Group and Xcel Energy, responded to requests for comment this week.

Christa Sarrack, president of a union that represents about 6,000
hospitality workers. said some of their employers had decided to close
for the day, while others were allowing employees to not come to work.

“We cannot simply sit by and allow this to continue,” Ms. Sarrack
said. “We must use every tool that we have to fight back.”

For some employers, the choice over whether to participate has not
been easy, because they simply cannot afford to lose a day’s
revenue.

Andrew Schoenzeit, who owns Zipps Liquors in Minneapolis, kept his
business open Friday. But he said he supported the strike and had no
problem with the one employee who requested the day off to protest.

At some Minneapolis businesses that remained open on Friday, employees
who showed up said that, even if they supported the strike in spirit,
they couldn’t afford to go without pay.

”I have to pay for my tuition. I have to pay for rent, food, all the
above,” said Joe Joyce, a shift lead at Potbelly, a sandwich chain.
“It’s not like I’m rejecting the protest. I don’t really have
much of a choice to come in.”

For some leaders of local and state unions, the decision over whether
to encourage their members to participate in the general strike was
difficult, because it was not organized under state and federal strike
laws, and was not considered an official “work stoppage day.” But
the push for the boycott spread so widely that it became hard to
ignore.

Chris Rubesch, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, a union
representing more than 22,000 nurses and other health care workers,
said he and other leaders discouraged members from missing work
because of “no-strike” provisions in their contract. But he said
the union also encouraged them not to participate in any other
economic activity.

Mr. Anderson, the board member of the St. Paul Federation of
Educators, said his union signed on after much debate, and asked
members “to decide what that call to action means to them.”

“We decided it was now time to take a stand,” Mr. Anderson said.
“It was time to boldly declare that enough is enough. We’re not
going to take it anymore.”

Jazmine Ulloa, Pooja Salhotra, Kailyn Rhone, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs,
and Zachary A. Bohlman contributed reporting.

 

Chris Hippensteel [[link removed]] is a
reporter covering breaking news and a member of the 2025-26 Times
Fellowship
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program for journalists early in their careers.

Talya Minsberg [[link removed]] is a Times
reporter covering breaking and developing news.

Maia Coleman [[link removed]] is a reporter
for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal
justice in the New York area.

 

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