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 in Minneapolis. The death heightened 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.
After speeches from clergy members, demonstrators marched toward the facility’s restricted area, jeering at a line of DHS agents to “quit your jobs” and “get out of Minnesota.” Much of the group later dispersed after they were threatened with arrest by local law enforcement for blocking the road.
Michelle Pasko, a retired communications worker, said she joined the demonstration after witnessing federal agents stopping immigrants at a bus stop near her home in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.
“They’re roaming our streets, they’re staying in hotels near our schools,” she said. “Everyone in this country has rights, and the federal government seems to have forgotten that. We’re here to remind them.”
“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.”
Numerous businesses announced they would be closed during Friday’s “blackout.” Others said they would be staying open, but donating a portion of their proceeds to organizations that support immigrants and provide legal aid to those facing deportation.
Otway Restaurant and its sister Otway Bakery in New York posted on social media that its bakery would stay open and 50% of proceeds would go to the New York Immigration Coalition. The restaurant remained open as well.
“As a small business who already took a huge financial hit this week due to the winter storm closures, we will remain open on Friday,” they posted.
In Maine, where Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced that ICE is ending its surge, people gathered outside a Portland church on Friday morning, holding signs that said “No ICE for ME,” a play on the state’s postal code.
Grace Valenzuela, an administrator with Portland Public Schools, decried an “enforcement system that treats our presence as suspect.” She said ICE’s actions brought “daily trauma” to the school system.
Portland Mayor Mark Dion, a Democrat, spoke about the importance of speaking out in the wake of ICE’s actions in the city.
“Dissent is Democratic. Dissent is American. It’s the cornerstone of our democracy,” Dion said.
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Associated Press writers Mae Anderson in New York, Jake Offenhartz in Minneapolis, Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
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