More than 50,000 march in day of action demanding ICE out of Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, January 23, at 2 p.m., it was -11 degrees F with -40 windchill when over 50,000 Minnesotans bundled up in layers and scarves braved the extreme cold. They gathered in a park near US Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis to demand that ICE leave the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

By 1 p.m. the park was already beginning to fill up with people arriving early to avoid clogged traffic and backed-up light rail trains coming into the area, getting crowded with Minnesotans coming to the march. By 2 p.m., there was no way to see the edges of the protest from inside the crowd, even when standing on benches to get a better view, as it stretched many blocks in all directions and around corners, flooding a large section of downtown.

From the middle of the crowd there was no way to tell what time the march began moving. However, marchers near the front reported that they were already at the end point of the march 14 blocks away, over an hour before the back half of the march had begun to move. During the march, the 14-block route of wide downtown streets was packed full of sidewalk to sidewalk, as was the park at the beginning and the area surrounding the endpoint.

The march ended at the Target Center, which is the arena where the Minnesota Timberwolves play basketball. A large indoor rally was held in the Target Center, which holds over 20,000 and was sold out of free tickets for the event. First Avenue is a large music venue in Minneapolis, and it also opened as a warming center and to live stream the rally. It was also full. Many more never made it inside at either venue.

Over 1000 Minneapolis businesses had announced they would close as part of the day of action.

The march was the centering of a long day of actions called “ICE Out of Minnesota – Day of Truth and Freedom.” The day was called for by a group of unions working together with immigrant rights organizations and community groups across the Twin Cities.

The day of action began with a 6 a.m. picket at the Como Avenue location of HealthPartners, a large medical system in the Twin Cities, where the workers are members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa and are in bargaining for their next union contract. The HealthPartners workers have authorized an upcoming strike with a 99% vote to strike. The picket on Friday was an informational picket that was part of the coordinated day of action. At the time of the picket, it was -21 degrees real temperature and around -50 degrees windchill and pitch dark, yet the picket was large and boisterous.

Around 10 a.m., 100 clergy and religious leaders were arrested in a sit-in at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport, where thousands of people have been deported and airport workers have been arrested by ICE.

Soon after the action at the airport, members of Minneapolis Federation of Educators, the union in Minneapolis Public Schools, held an action at the Minneapolis City Hall highlighting ICE’s reign of terror on the children, staff and families at Minneapolis schools. Many more actions were held by unions and groups who were part of the day of action, and many workers stayed home from work to participate in the day.

This march and many actions of the day were only the latest of dozens of huge protests and actions in the Twin Cities to resist ICE’s Metro Surge.

Recent weeks have seen ICE terrorizing community members – sometimes with intentional targets and other times seemingly at random – with ICE escalating interactions with the public daily, doing things like smashing car windows and dragging people out of cars, and beating people in the streets.

ICE has also blocked victims of their violence from receiving necessary medical care. The list of atrocities by ICE in the Twin Cities has sharply grown since an ICE agent murdered Renee Good in her car in Minneapolis on January 7.

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