Hundreds of Minnesota businesses close to protest ICE presence

3 hours agoKayla EpsteinandNatalie ShermanHundreds of businesses in Minnesota closed on Friday and thousands of protesters turned out in severely cold weather to demonstrate against the ongoing immigration crackdown in the state.The widespread rallies come after organisers encouraged residents to skip work or school and refrain from shopping in a show of opposition to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).The ICE operation ordered by the Trump administration in Minnesota has been going on for more than six weeks.The administration has characterised it as a public safety operation aimed at deporting criminals illegally in the country. Critics warn migrants with no criminal record and US citizens are being detained too.On Friday, about 100 clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis airport while holding a protest calling on US airlines to refuse to transport detainees arrested by ICE. A spokesman for the airports commission told the Minnesota Reformer that the arrests took place after the "permitted activity went beyond agreed upon terms" and was to done to protect the public safety and airport access. Thousands of federal officers have been deployed to Minnesota as part of "Operation Metro Surge".The killing of 37-year-old Minneapolis woman Renee Good earlier this month flared tensions across the state and brought condemnation from local officials."We want ICE out of Minnesota, and we want ICE out of every state, with their extreme overreach," said Bishop Dwayne Royster, whose organisation Faith in Action is supporting local partners in Minneapolis during the strike. "We want Congress to stand up and provide oversight to ICE."Friday's marches are thought to be the largest display of opposition to date to the current immigration policy in the state, as thousands of people walked downtown through temperatures of -23C (-10F). As they made their way to the city's NBA arena to hold an anti-ICE rally, taking place on the home court of the Minnesota-timberwolves" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="17897" data-entity-type="organization">Minnesota Timberwolves, protesters chanted and played music. On Friday morning, Minneapolis resident Corey Lamb closed his business, Harriet Grove Botanicals, in solidarity and headed to a protest. He objected to the presence of ICE agents in his city, and was outraged by Good's death in early January.He also saw the immigration raids as an economic threat to his business, and others in his community."We have a lot of friends that we rely on, we have a lot of businesses that we rely on, in order to make our business work," Lamb told the BBC. "When those individuals are struggling because they're afraid of being detained or disappeared, it has an effect not only morally but economically on what's going on here, and also in the greater Midwest."Lamb's business was joined by hundreds of others, from restaurants and tattoo parlours to toy stores.Kim Bartmann is the owner of six restaurants in Minneapolis, including four that remain open in the winter but that she shut on Friday. While she supports the cause, she said the decision to participate had been a tricky one, given the costs."Everyone is in solidarity, but everyone needs to buy groceries and pay their rents," she said, noting that staff at one of her locations had initially asked to stay open, before deciding the risk of backlash over not participating would be too great."Economically, it is a severe blow to my business," she said.She said sales at her restaurants, which include Barbette and Gigi's Café, have already dropped more than 30% over the past three weeks as a result of the ICE operation, which has prompted her to limit her opening hours as customers and staff stay home."We have a lot of employees who are US citizens or have paperwork to work in the US who are still terrified to leave their homes," she said.ICE's presence has outraged many of Minnesota's residents, who have protested against their operations and other federal officers operating in their city.This week, school officials in the suburb of Columbia Heights announced that four of their students had been detained by ICE, ranging from ages five to 17.A two-year-old child was also detained on Thursday alongside her undocumented father while returning home from a grocery store in south Minneapolis, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner. In a speech on Thursday, Vice-President JD Vance called for local Minnesota law enforcement to coordinate with federal officers to carry out immigration enforcement.Minnesota, and some of its cities, have so-called "sanctuary" policies, which limit the ways that local government and law enforcement cooperates with ICE. The Trump administration has criticised these policies as a threat to public safety.Meanwhile, a Minneapolis FBI agent resigned this week over concerns about the bureau's handling of the investigation into Good's shooting, CBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported. The New York Times was first to report the resignation. Tracee Mergen left "in part due to the pressure on her to reclassify/discontinue the investigation" over Good's death, CBS News reported, citing sources. The BBC has contacted the FBI for comment. Earlier this month, US media reported that at least six prosecutors in the Minneapolis US Attorney's office resigned over the administration's handling of the federal investigation.