Minnesota businesses shut down, protesters hit the streets in bitter cold to protest ICE

Minnesota businesses shuttered Jan. 23 and crowds hit the streets to protest in bone-chilling temperatures as part of a statewide demonstration to support immigrant communities and demand federal immigration agents leave the state.

An estimated 700 restaurants, shops, museums and entertainment venues closed for the “Day of Truth and Freedom,” an effort conceived by faith and union leaders that encouraged Minnesotans to skip work, school and shopping. The event, which culminated in a demonstration in downtown Minneapolis, spurred similar protests in cities including New York and Philadelphia.

The Twin Cities area has been the epicenter of organized protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement since an agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

ICE agents began arriving in the state en masse Dec. 1, and federal officials claim they have arrested 10,000 “criminal illegal aliens” in Minnesota. The Minnesota Star Tribune has not been able to confirm that figure.

The statewide economic strike Friday meant storefronts were dark and business corridors quiet, while protests unfolded from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the federal Whipple building to Duluth City Hall. On Friday afternoon, protesters packed the streets of downtown Minneapolis, occasionally stopping inside buildings and bus stops to warm up amid gusts that have brought the wind chill down to minus-30.

ICE activity has already hurt local businesses, which have lost workers and customers during what federal officials have dubbed Operation Metro Surge. Some businesses planned to stay open and donate proceeds of Friday sales to organizations supporting immigrants.

On Lyndale Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood, it was easier to find a closed business than an open one Friday. People heading to the downtown protest waited bundled up at the bus stop on 24th Avenue, some watching buses already packed full of people with protest signs pass them by.

“We know that so many of the people that are regulars here are going to be attending,” Kjellberg said.

In St. Paul, Layna Dao said she and her parents decided to close their third-generation St. Paul Ha-Tien Supermarket on Friday to show solidarity with all immigrant communities.

“[There is] a heightened level of fear that has been installed in our community due to the ongoing ICE operations, the intimidation, harassment and racial profiling directed at our community members who call this place home,” Dao said. ”Our community should not live in fear due to the complexion of our skin, the language that we speak or what documentation they have.”

In Anoka, a north metro city where a narrow 50% voted for Kamala Harris for president in 2024, downtown businesses, including a gift store and quilt shop, closed Friday as part of the statewide protest.

The owners of Avant Garden Bookstore posted on Facebook they would participate in the shutdown, writing: “We object to political corruption of our federal government and their overtaking our state.”

The bookstore’s closure is in the tradition of indie bookstores, which store manager Sarah Brown described as places to protect freedom of expression.

“We want to be a third place ... where they feel they can come and interact with other community members, maybe even debate them, but it’s a safe place to address all kinds of ideas,” she said.

Josh Stotts, owner of Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake, posted on Facebook Thursday that it would be closed. Now is not a time to be quiet, he said.

“People want to know, ‘What side are you on?’ ” he said in a video. “Our answer is simple: We’re on the human side. The side where kindness and grace matters.”

At Pulse Barre + Fitness, owner Cassidy Glad said on Facebook she had gone back and forth on her decision to remain open.

Small businesses made up the lion’s share of shutdown participants. At the Mall of America in Bloomington, many shoppers declined to speak with or provide their names to a reporter.

One St. Paul man said he felt ICE gets a bad rap, before clarifying that he had never seen the officers on the streets.

Another, who denounced ICE agents, said federal officials might move the focus of immigration enforcement operations away from Minnesota if activists stopped pushing back.

“They like to hear about this strife we’re going through,” the man said.

Lori Jump of Michigan was reading a mall navigation screen with a Nordstrom Rack bag in her hand.

But while waiting for a delayed flight, Jump said, she spilled an entire soda on herself. She headed to the mall for warm and clean clothes.

“I one-hundred percent support Minnesotans in what they’re doing,” she said.