More than 300 anti-ICE protests planned across US this weekend

More than 300 demonstrations are expected to take place across all 50 states and Washington DC, today, in what organizers are calling “ICE Out of Everywhere”.Organizers, led by the national grassroots organization 50501, say today’s protests are a response to a series of recent deaths involving federal immigration agents, including the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, the homicide of Geraldo Campos in an immigration detention facility in Texas and the shooting of Keith Porter Jr by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Los Angeles.Activists said the killings reflect what they see as a broader pattern of excessive force, detention abuses and the militarization of immigration enforcement.“The national day of action is about fighting back against the escalations that the Trump administration has taken against the American people over the past year,” said Hunter Dunn, a national press coordinator for 50501 and organizer in southern California. “Reports about the killings of Porter and Campos, the ones not captured on camera, and so many others have pierced the veil for many people who until now were unaware of how bad things had gotten.”Among the demonstrations are vigils for people killed and detained by ICE, overpass banner actions, sidewalk protests, marches and community training sessions to help people learn how to observe ICE and pressure elected officials to take action against Trump’s immigration crackdown.In major cities and small towns from California to Maine, protests are expected outside ICE detention centers, ICE field offices and congressional district offices. Demonstrators are also expected to gather at airports to protest airlines, including Global Crossing Airlines, that transport people as part of federal deportations.Protesters are also calling for lawmakers to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security until ICE and CBP agents are removed from communities. On Thursday, Democratic senators agreed to advance several government spending bills to avert a partial shutdown but are still calling for ICE reforms as part of a separate stalled bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. Democrats are calling for a code of conduct for ICE and for independent investigations of its operations.Demonstrators are also applying economic pressure to what they say is the network supporting ICE’s activity. The “No Housing for ICE” effort urges people to boycott hotels that provide lodging to immigration enforcement authorities during operations. On Saturday, people plan to protest near hotels that cooperate with ICE, leave negative reviews and make calls to management to urge them to end any contracts with ICE.Another campaign, “#DontServeICE”, focuses on local establishments, in which organizers are asking restaurants, retailers and other shops to refuse service to federal immigration agents. Protests are also taking place at major corporations that organizers say are supporting ICE operations, including Target and Home Depot. In the last year, ICE has detained shoppers and employees at these retailers, prompting protesters to demand that the companies take a stand against immigration enforcement.Saturday’s protests build on weeks of demonstrations following the ICE shooting of Good in her vehicle on 7 January. Crowds grew on 23 January, when tens of thousands of people in Minnesota marched downtown to demand that ICE leave the city. Local protest leaders called for “No work, no school, no shopping” as hundreds of businesses shut their doors. A week later, on 30 January, demonstrators called for a national shutdown, and thousands of people participated in hundreds of protest actions across the country – from Knoxville, Tennessee, where high school students walked out of class, to Seattle, where local businesses shut down. “Today’s actions are a handoff from everything that has already been building up,” Dunn said. “In Los Angeles, we are picking up from where yesterday’s actions left off. This is a combined push as ICE harms our communities.”But organizers say their demands, including calls for ICE officers to face legal accountability for killing civilians, remain unanswered.“We are thankful that people are continuing to take action and that the groundswell is continuing to happen in our states and across this country,” said minister Janae Bates Imari, a co-executive director of the Minneapolis interfaith organising group Isaiah, during a press conference. “It felt like the cold and the fear from our own federal government threatened us, but we have not let it stop us. We need more people to continue to show up until ICE leaves.”