ICE Protests Shut Minneapolis as 100 Clergy Are Arrested

Police arrested about 100 clergy members demonstrating against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement actions at Minnesota's largest airport on Friday. The protesters had overstepped their permit, officials said as a mass mobilization against the federal operation began across the state, the AP reports. A network of labor unions, progressive organizations, and clergy had urged Minnesotans to stay away from work, school, and stores for the day. Hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities shut their doors, per the Washington Post. The idea is to show that "this is what the world's going to look like if you take our hardworking neighbors away," said Ruth Kashmark, who closed her bar.

The clergy were protesting the involvement of Delta Airlines in the deportation of immigrants, said one of the organizers, per the AP. An airport spokesman said the protesters were arrested outside the main terminal when they went beyond the stipulations of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations. While there, the protesters sang, prayed, and talked about people who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, per CBS News. Bishop Dwayne Royster, leader of the progressive organization Faith in Action, arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday from Washington, DC. "We want ICE out of Minnesota," he said. "We want them out of all the cities around the country where they're exercising extreme overreach."

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Minneapolis for a march in the subzero cold, per the NBC News. They waved American flags, chanted for ICE to leave, and carried signs demanding the arrest of the agent who shot Renee Good to death on Jan. 7. Organizers distributed hand-warmers. "Today is the coldest day of the entire year in Minnesota, and we have the biggest protest to date happening," one marcher said. "That has to say something." At the airport, per the New York Times, Royster said Minnesotans are demonstrating "deep resilience and willingness to stand together in ways I haven't seen folks do in a very long time."