Businesses close, Minnesotans to stay home Friday in protest of ICE

Businesses across Minnesota plan to shut their doors Jan. 23 as part of an economic blackout intended to show support for immigrants who have been the target of federal agents.

The “ICE Out! Statewide Shutdown” is calling for Minnesotans to skip work, school and shopping on Friday. Conceived by faith and union leaders, it’s the latest in a series of organized protests in the Twin Cities and statewide since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

A run of demonstrations have led up to the big day, from the state Capitol to suburban construction sites. On Wednesday afternoon, immigration agents descended upon Minneapolis’ Karmel Mall three times and detained three people in less than two hours. Scores of Somali business owners had gathered there for a planned protest.

Bashir Garad, chairman of the Karmel Mall Business Association and the owner of a travel company, said he and fellow shop owners will all close Friday in a show of community unity.

The plan to shutter businesses has gained “momentum and support from a wide variety of communities that are all demanding ICE out of Minnesota,” Garad said. “Already, thousands of businesses have declared that they will shut down this Friday, and tens of thousands of workers and students have pledged to march in the streets, rather than go to work or school.”

At the University of Minnesota, workers and leaders from three unions representing campus workers and graduate students urged President Rebecca Cunningham to close campus so employees could participate in the statewide “general strike,” said David Munkvold, an ecology PhD student and field worker for the graduate students’ union. There is a rally and news conference scheduled for Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, students, teachers and parents took part in a countdown to Friday’s shutdown on the steps of the Capitol. During the rally, which nonprofit Unidos MN organized, Minneapolis Community and Technical College student Blair Spina said she supports the shutdown as a way to call attention to her immigrant classmates who “are having their right to higher education impeded” thanks to ICE agents swarming the Twin Cities as part of Operation Metro Surge.

Finn Sisu, the Lauderdale-based hub of Nordic skiing in the Twin Cities, will close Friday in solidarity with the general strike. The move comes at one of the store’s busiest times of the year, and co-owner Karen Weium said the business expects to lose about $6,000 in revenue that day.

“In talking with our staff and fellow owners, it wasn’t a hard decision,” she said, adding Finn Sisu employees plan to attend a Friday demonstration in downtown Minneapolis. “We’ve got to show up for this.”

Mike Brown, co-owner of eight Twin Cities restaurants that make up the Travail Collective, said Friday’s shutdown will mean a loss of $100,000, and that could mean his struggling business might have to close down for good. Deciding to join the cause anyway was “the hardest decision” his team has ever had to make, he said.

Wes Burdine, owner of the Black Hart of St. Paul, said he, too, is shutting his bar for the day. He said he is also launching a social media campaign to call attention to the closings and the community being in ”an unusual state right now, and it’s an emergency."

Burdine is planning two benefit shows at the Black Hart in coming weeks to support the Ice Out cause, he said. In addition to closures, many businesses are raising funds for organizations supporting local immigrant communities.

Some business owners had decided not to close down Friday, saying they would support the protest in other ways.

At Oro by Nixta, chef and co-owner Gustavo Romero said he decided to stay open after hearing from staff.

“Everybody there, they were like, ‘I want to work. I need to work,’” Romero said. “Some people that are with us, they might be the only person working at their household.”

For him, staying open does not mean opting out of the movement. “Everybody has a different situation,” Romero said. “If we decide to open, it doesn’t mean that we’re not a part of that.”

He looks at the restaurant as not just a business “but more like a cultural place, a cultural center where people like me can come and feel welcome,” Romero said. “We want to be a light.”