Anti-ICE Protests Echo 1980s Sanctuary Movement Tactics
Over 300 demonstrations erupted simultaneously across the United States on January 31, 2026, in what organizers called the “National Shutdown”—one of the largest coordinated actions against federal immigration enforcement in contemporary American history. The catalyst: two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis that killed Renée Good on January 7 and intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on January 24.
What unfolded was an organized demonstration that used strategies first developed four decades earlier during the 1980s Sanctuary Movement, when churches sheltered Central American refugees fleeing civil wars. Faith communities opened their doors as sanctuaries. Workers walked off jobs. Students left classrooms in coordinated walkouts across hundreds of schools. Demonstrators faced tear gas and pepper balls at ICE detention facilities from Los Angeles to Portland.
The movement combined street demonstrations with sanctuary provision, economic disruption, and direct confrontation with federal facilities.
Two Deaths That Sparked a Movement
Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was driving her Honda Pilot on a Minneapolis residential street when ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots at her vehicle. An ABC News frame-by-frame video analysis showed Good steering away from the agent—not toward him—when he opened fire.
Seventeen days later, Alex Pretti stood near the intersection of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis’s Whittier neighborhood, holding his phone to document ICE operations. Border Patrol officers Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez fired approximately ten rounds at the Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. Video showed Pretti holding his glasses in one hand, his phone in the other—no gun visible in the seconds before the shooting.
Both deaths occurred during Operation Metro Surge, which the Department of Homeland Security described as “the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out.” More than 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol officers had deployed to Minneapolis beginning in December 2025.
The medical examiner ruled both deaths homicides. Yet the Trump administration initially characterized Good as someone who “weaponized her vehicle” to “massacre law enforcement” and depicted Pretti as an “assassin” and “gunman.” These narratives collapsed under video evidence and witness testimony showing neither victim brandishing weapons or attacking officers.
A House Committee on Oversight report by Democratic members concluded that “the Trump Administration’s extreme policies, violent tactics, and culture of impunity led to the killings.” The report added that “the Trump Administration’s lies about the killings cannot cover up what the American people saw with their own eyes.”
The Scale of the National Shutdown
Over 300 demonstrations occurred simultaneously in cities across all 50 states. Tens of thousands braved arctic temperatures—Minneapolis saw below-zero conditions—to show opposition to federal actions.
Organizing happened through encrypted communication networks, labor union channels, immigrant rights organizations, youth climate movements, and faith-based networks. In Minneapolis, over 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. Los Angeles saw thousands downtown. Major demonstrations unfolded in New York, Chicago, Houston, Denver, Tucson, and San Francisco.
Over 300 schools coordinated student walkouts on January 31. High school students in Michigan walked approximately a mile to business districts in zero-degree temperatures. Students in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, California, and Texas participated in coordinated walkouts.
In Minneapolis alone, numerous businesses closed their doors in solidarity. Across the country, restaurants, bakeries, and retail establishments announced closures or pledged to donate portions of proceeds to immigrant rights organizations and legal defense funds. In New York, Otway Restaurant and Otway Bakery announced their bakery would remain open while donating 50 percent of the day’s proceeds to the New York Immigration Coalition.
“We can’t afford to be closed, but because of what’s at stake and because of what this stands for, we can’t not afford to do this,” explained one small business co-owner.
Coalition Structure
Service Employees International Union chapters coordinated worker participation across healthcare and janitorial services where immigrant workers constitute significant portions of the workforce. The American Federation of Teachers facilitated school walkouts by engaging with student organizations. The New York Immigrant Coalition, representing dozens of member organizations, mobilized New York-area resistance while connecting to coordination efforts nationwide.
The Sunrise Movement, a climate justice organization, explicitly connected the two issues. “Some people have been asking us why a youth climate movement is organizing a campaign against ICE,” they stated. “We can’t pass climate policy under a fascist regime that’s brought out by Big Oil and is literally starting wars on their behalf.”
Faith-based organizing emerged as an organizing hub, particularly through New Sanctuary Movement chapters operating in numerous cities. Churches, temples, synagogues, and other religious institutions declared their roles in providing physical sanctuary to immigrants threatened with deportation. This echoed the organizational form pioneered during the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s.
Echoes of the 1980s Sanctuary Movement
The movement of the 1980s emerged in response to Central American civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. Between 1980 and 1991, nearly a million Central Americans crossed the U.S. border seeking asylum. The U.S. government, aligned with right-wing regimes perpetrating violence in Central America, systematically denied asylum to refugees fleeing persecution.
In 1982, Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona declared itself a public sanctuary for Central American refugees. It posted banners reading “This is a Sanctuary for the Oppressed of Central America” and “Immigration: do not profane the Sanctuary of God.” The movement grew rapidly—roughly 500 congregations of multiple denominations established sanctuary networks to provide refuge and legal assistance to undocumented Central Americans.
Movement participants deliberately invoked comparison to the Underground Railroad.
The movement of the 1980s employed both secret and public approaches. Secret approaches involved smuggling refugees across borders using underground networks coordinated between churches in Mexico and the United States. Public approaches involved announcing sanctuary provision openly, accepting the legal risks of federal prosecution while using publicity to generate moral pressure.
The federal government responded with criminal prosecution. In 1985, federal officials indicted sanctuary workers including John Fife, the Southside Presbyterian pastor, prosecuting them for conspiracy and harboring undocumented aliens. Eight sanctuary workers were convicted. Because of international outcry supporting the clergy, the judge imposed probation rather than jail sentences.
Despite federal prosecution efforts, the Sanctuary Movement continued organizing throughout the decade and subsequent decades. It achieved policy victories including changes in asylum policy and the eventual establishment of Temporary Protected Status for certain nationalities.
How 2026 Differs
The 2026 anti-ICE movement drew on Sanctuary Movement traditions while adapting tactics to contemporary contexts. Faith communities declared sanctuary provision, establishing protected spaces where immigrants could shelter without fear of ICE detention.
But the 2026 movement also incorporated labor organizing, youth mobilization, and street-based action in ways the movement of the 1980s hadn’t emphasized. The earlier movement focused primarily on faith-based organization. And while the movement of the 1980s centered on refugee protection and border crossing facilitation, the 2026 movement demanded systemic change. It called for ICE abolition, body camera and warrant requirements, and federal agent withdrawal from Minneapolis. This represented a more abolitionist political project rather than helping individual refugees.
When Demonstrations Met Federal Force
The federal government’s response to the National Shutdown varied by location. Some cities saw police allowing peaceful demonstrations. Others witnessed rapid escalation to chemical weapons and less-lethal projectiles.
In Los Angeles, what began as a peaceful gathering of thousands downtown escalated rapidly at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly after demonstrators approached the facility. They then deployed tear gas and pepper balls from rooftops and windows. Video documentation captured officers positioned on the detention center’s roof taking aim with orange less-lethal rifles, firing at least five rounds at point-blank range into crowds.
“I told my friends we should come out after school to use our voice, but I wasn’t expecting to see this,” said a 19-year-old demonstrator. “It’s honestly sad to see that it reached this point.”
In Portland, federal officers deployed tear gas and pepper balls against demonstrators gathering near an ICE detention facility. Federal authorities—distinct from city police—declared the unlawful assembly and deployed weaponry.
Minneapolis presented a distinctive scenario given the massive federal presence already deployed as part of Operation Metro Surge. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had previously signed an executive order banning federal officials from using city property for staging areas. Police Chief Brian O’Hara refused to allow federal officers to dismiss local police from scenes, asserting local law authority.
Measuring Impact and Strategic Outcomes
The most immediate demand—withdrawal of 3,000 federal officers from Minneapolis—hasn’t been achieved. Border Czar Tom Homan indicated that withdrawal would depend on “cooperation” from state and local officials. He conditioned agent reduction on local jails and prisons honoring ICE detainer requests.
The coordinated 300+ city action generated sustained coverage across major outlets. International media outlets reported on the demonstrations to a global audience.
The Public Opinion Shift
Polling data showed that support for abolishing ICE reached its highest level since the agency’s 2003 creation. Forty-two percent supported abolition compared to only 24 percent one year earlier. That’s an 18-point swing in one year.
ICE’s approval rating fell to negative 13 points, a stark reversal from the positive 16-point rating the agency had held before Trump took office. Regarding tactics, 51 percent of Americans believed ICE’s tactics were “too forceful,” compared to only 27 percent believing them appropriate.
Government Institutional Responses
The Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation into Alex Pretti’s death. However, the DOJ declined to investigate Renée Good’s killing. This decision prompted resignations from DOJ Civil Rights Division employees and prosecutors.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Democratic members, conducted investigations into both killings and released findings. They concluded that the Trump Administration attempted coverup of misconduct. They demanded DOJ investigation and accountability measures, and called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s resignation.
Senate Democrats used this opportunity to propose legislative reforms. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer articulated “common-sense reforms” that Democrats sought to incorporate into homeland security funding legislation. These included ending roving patrols, tightening warrant requirements, mandating coordination with state and local law enforcement, implementing uniform codes of conduct, requiring federal officers to unmask rather than operate in face coverings, mandating body camera use, and requiring proper identification.
The Legal Battlefield
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued federal officials in mid-January. They argued that Operation Metro Surge violated the Tenth Amendment by constituting an unconstitutional federal invasion of state sovereignty. On February 1, 2026, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied a preliminary injunction that would have halted Operation Metro Surge. She ruled that while the plaintiffs “made a strong showing that the surge has had a profound and even heartbreaking impact” on the state, an injunction would cause “irreparable harm to the government” by hampering federal law enforcement.
However, other federal court decisions suggested constitutional constraints on some federal tactics. One judge ordered “a halt to all detention and deportation of legal refugees.” Another wrote that “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
Sustaining Momentum
The National Shutdown’s one-day culmination gave way to sustained activity through early February despite arctic weather conditions that might typically suppress outdoor mobilization.
Academic research on civil resistance movements identifies a consistent pattern: “contemporary movements tend to over-rely on mass demonstrations while neglecting other techniques—such as general strikes and mass civil disobedience—that can more forcefully disrupt a regime’s stability.”
The Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s sustained organizing for years despite federal prosecution. It achieved policy victories including asylum reforms and Temporary Protected Status, while also limiting its reach through faith-community-specific organizing. The 2026 movement’s wider network of organizing groups—labor unions, youth organizations, secular immigrant rights organizations alongside faith communities—potentially enabled longer-term sustainability.
Research on movement success shows that movements combining sustained direct action, electoral engagement, and institutional pressure sustained longer than those relying primarily on episodic mass action.
The Abolitionist Demand
The movement’s demand for ICE abolition—articulated consistently by participating organizations and grassroots activists—faced the political reality that abolition legislation remained unlikely in the current congressional context. But the public opinion shift toward abolition support suggested potential for longer-term political movement toward this demand.
A commentator in student publication The Justice connected movement action to abolitionist demands: “ICE must be abolished. It cannot simply be reformed or its thugs retrained.” This abolitionist framing marked evolution from earlier opposition to specific ICE tactics toward demands for institutional elimination.
The deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti catalyzed mobilization that transformed abstract policy concerns into demands for justice and systemic change. The National Shutdown demonstrated that contemporary movements have learned from historical precedent while adapting to new realities. It combined sanctuary provision, work stoppages, youth mobilization, and direct action. The Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s showed that faith-based resistance could sustain itself through federal prosecution and achieve policy victories. The 2026 movement showed that those tactics, combined with a wider network of organizing groups and abolitionist demands, could generate public support for dismantling the system.
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