Protesters call for nationwide strike against Trump’s immigration policies
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Protesters across the U.S. are calling for “no work, no school, no shopping” as part of a nationwide strike on Friday to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
The demonstrations are taking place amid widespread outrage over the killing Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, who was shot multiple times after he used his cellphone to record Border Patrol officers conducting an immigration enforcement operation. The death only reignited scrutiny over the administration’s tactics after the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good, who was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
“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,” some of the organizers wrote on their website.
Multiple businesses announced they would be closed during Friday’s “blackout,” and some schools in Arizona and Colorado preemptively canceled classes in anticipation of mass absences.
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Some Minnesota businesses that closed last Friday are closed again Friday. That also includes some event cancellations or postponements, including all Great Northern Festival events scheduled for Friday. The festival will resume Saturday.
Some students took part in walkouts. In Michigan, several dozen walked out of Friday morning classes at Groves High School in Birmingham, north of Detroit. The students braved the zero-degree temperatures and walked about a mile to the closest business district where a number of morning commuters honked horns in support.
“We’re here to protest ICE and what they’re doing all over the country, especially in Minnesota,” said Logan Albritton, a 17-year-old senior at Groves. “It’s not right to treat our neighbors and our fellow Americans this way.”
“The teachers, generally, have been pretty supportive,” Albritton added. “But there was an email sent out last night trying to get us not to do this, and we came and did it anyway.”
Albritton said the email was more about the students’ safety.
Many other demonstrations are planned for students and others to gather at city centers, statehouses and churches across the country.
— The Associated Press and Andrew Krueger, MPR News
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