Activists are calling for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns.
Organizers say Friday’s “blackout” – or general strike, as some are calling it – is part of a growing non-violent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents.
Those deaths include Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Keith Porter in Los Angeles, and Silverio Villegas González in Illinois. Friday’s national protest leaders, many of them students at the University of Minnesota, are calling for ICE to leave the city after its nearly month-long operation. They say economic pressure through work stoppages and consumer boycotts is just one way to demand accountability and reform.
“We are calling for this strike because we believe what we have been doing in Minnesota should go national,” said Kidus Yeshidagna, president of the Ethiopian Students Union at the University of Minnesota and one of the students organizing the strike.
“We need more people and lawmakers across the country to wake up.”
Yeshidagna is part of a coalition of student groups that organized the Minnesota shutdown last Friday, in which thousands of people flooded the streets in sub-zero temperatures and hundreds of businesses shut their doors to demand justice for Good, who was shot by an ICE agent while trying to protect a neighbor. Last weekend, agents killed Pretti, another resident who was observing agents’ activities.
The student groups – including the associations representing Black, Somali, Liberian, Ethiopian and Eritrean students and the graduate labor union – first gathered on 21 January to plan the calls for local and national strikes. “We came out in huge numbers despite the cold,” he said, referencing last week’s actions. “We are now doing it again.”
From restaurants and clothing retailers to bookstores and coffee shops, businesses across dozens of cities have announced that they are closed.
Protesters in Philadelphia, New York, Boise and Columbus are gathering at city halls, courthouses, statehouses and legislative buildings, according to an action tracker. Students at high schools and colleges in Florida, California and other states are staging walkouts.
In Milwaukee and in Buffalo, Wyoming, people are gathering at parks and on street corners. Some protesters, including those in Washington DC, are gathering outside Target stores. After ICE violently detained two Target employees in Richfield, Minnesota, activists have increased calls to sustain the boycott on the retail giant.
Support for the strike has grown throughout the week. The neighbors and family members of Good and Pretti contacted the student organizations to share their support for the protests, Yeshidagna told the Guardian. Hundreds of organizations, including student groups in other states, unions, and major organizing groups, including 50501, have thrown their support behind the action.
“We want to obstruct the pillars that are upholding the Trump administration,” Gloriann Sahay, a national coordinator with 50501, told the Guardian. “By showing up, we are showing we are more in number and that we are not afraid of this terror being reigned down upon us.”
Celebrities including Ariana Grande, Macklemore and Pedro Pascal have also called for a strike. “When I got out of class, I saw that Ariana posted our flyer,” said Yeshidagna. “That was crazy. It is awesome that she is bringing light to this.”
Yeshidagna, who grew up in St Paul, said he was in high school and 15 minutes away from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. He protested as a student and continues to lead protests now. Since Trump sent ICE officers to Minnesota, he and his peers in the student organizations have watched his friends and family members be targeted.
“We’ve been seeing clear racial profiling in Minnesota,” Yeshidagna said. “This isn’t just an immigrant issue. This is a human rights issue that is also affecting US citizens.”
Friday’s protests coincide with a looming partial government shutdown as Senate Democrats – and some Republicans – have said they will oppose any spending bill that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Democrats are pushing for a variety of reform measures, including banning agents from wearing masks and having ICE obtain warrants to make arrests.
