The Unlikely Coalition Behind Minneapolis Anti-ICE Mobilization
Protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis—over 50,000 of them in −20°F temperatures, their glasses fogging over, frost crusting into thin films on their faces. More than 700 businesses closed. Members of the clergy knelt on airport roads and were arrested. Labor unions marched alongside radical activists. This month-long anti-ICE campaign that culminated on February 7 brought together an unusual coalition—one that shouldn’t have worked but did.
On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and U.S. citizen, in her Honda Pilot on a snowy Minneapolis street. Video evidence analyzed by The New York Times showed Ross firing three shots in under one second at Good’s departing vehicle. He fired the first at the windshield, the rest through the driver’s side window, while he remained upright beside the SUV. Federal officials claimed Good “ran over” an officer and engaged in “domestic terrorism.” The video told another story.
Then, 17 days later and one day after the first major coordinated demonstration, federal officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Minneapolis VA hospital. Pretti had been documenting federal officers with his phone when they pepper-sprayed a woman to the ground. He moved to help her. During the struggle, officers shouted “He’s got a gun”—referring to Pretti’s licensed firearm—before firing approximately 10 shots. Two deaths of U.S. citizens by federal officers in less than three weeks.
The Coalition
Over 700 businesses closed for the January 23 “Day of Truth and Freedom.” The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota Science Museum, Guthrie Theater, and seven First Avenue music venues shut their doors. More than 50,000 people marched in downtown Minneapolis in −20°F temperatures, their glasses fogging over, frost crusting into thin films on their faces.
That same morning, 100 members of the clergy knelt on the road at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in an act of civil disobedience. Nearly all were arrested after kneeling in prayer for immigrants. Reverend Katherine Lewis of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Minnetonka told reporters: “I had no hesitation that this was the right thing I was supposed to be doing.”
The UMN Graduate Labor Union joined with AFSCME Local 3800 (representing university service workers), the Black Student Union, Undergraduate Student Government, Lao Student Association, Liberian Student Association, Asian American Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Labor unions with official recognition and resources marched alongside the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Faith leaders coordinated with radical activist networks.
These groups brought distinct kinds of power. Labor unions provided organization skills and credibility. Student organizations brought numbers and passion and commitment. Radical political organizations brought planning skills and experience with confrontational tactics. Faith communities provided credibility and some legal protection through their status. When members of the clergy get arrested, the media covers it differently and courts treat them better than other arrest types.
Absent were many traditional civil rights organizations and Democratic Party institutions. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz publicly criticized ICE operations, but they didn’t formally direct city or state institutions behind the event.
What They Achieved
On February 4, White House border czar Tom Homan announced the administration would pull 700 immigration officers from Minnesota—roughly a quarter of the officers deployed to the state. “Effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people—effective today,” Homan stated.
At its height, Operation Metro Surge involved roughly 2,700 officers operating simultaneously—a size you’d normally see in temporary operations rather than ongoing domestic enforcement campaigns. The 700-agent reduction showed they changed their approach, not that they were giving up.
Homan said the reduction depended on whether local police help them with federal immigration enforcement, not as acknowledgment of the movement’s demands. He stated that “a complete drawdown is going to depend on cooperation, continued cooperation of local and state law enforcement, and the decrease of the violence, the rhetoric and the attacks against ICE and Border Patrol.”
The movement had stated clear demands: immediate withdrawal of all federal ICE and CBP officers from Minnesota, criminal prosecution of officers involved in the deaths of Good and Pretti, and expanded protections for immigrant students within the university system.
On criminal prosecution, as of early February, no charges had been filed against Jonathan Ross or the CBP officers who killed Pretti. The ICE chief refused to publicly apologize for the deaths during a congressional hearing. The Department of Justice, controlled by the Trump administration, had abandoned its investigation of Ross to instead investigate Good’s wife over her work with a local ICE Watch group—a move that triggered resignations by six veteran DOJ prosecutors in protest.
The Economic Blackout Strategy
The event was termed an “economic blackout” rather than a traditional general strike, and that distinction matters. The 1946 Taft-Hartley Act dramatically constrained general strike possibilities in the United States. It prohibited solidarity strikes, required 60 days’ notice before strikes, and enabled presidents to impose 80-day cooling-off periods in emergencies.
These legal restrictions meant the 2026 event couldn’t be a “true” general strike in the sense that workers could get in legal trouble. Rather, it worked as a one-day consumer boycott and business closure that looked like a general strike but wasn’t legally one.
The economic impact was measurable. Hospitality businesses in Minneapolis experienced a revenue drop of 50 to 80% during the period. Approximately 80% of immigrant-owned businesses closed for a week, many reporting decreases of 50-100%. This economic disruption was both a tactic and a cost—it pressured the federal government and city businesses while also harming the immigrant communities the movement sought to protect.
France’s 1968 general strike brought together ten million workers and brought the de Gaulle government to the brink of collapse. But it happened because French law allowed solidarity strikes and factory workers could shut down entire industries. India’s 2020 farmers’ demonstration included a general strike involving over 250 million participants, getting the government to give in only after months of effort.
The Twin Cities campaign kept going for a month, with some key workers involved through service workers and transportation workers via the airport blockade. But it operated under legal prohibition of solidarity strikes and didn’t maintain efforts beyond four major moments by early February.
The 3.5% Threshold Question
Political scientist Erica Chenoweth’s research on nonviolent resistance found that campaigns where at least 3.5% of the population participates and keeps at it have better chances of winning. Using this measure for Minnesota: if 3.5% of Minnesota’s approximately 5.7 million people participated directly, that would require 200,000 participants—a higher threshold than the estimated 50,000+ who participated in the demonstration.
The research suggests that single-day events, while generating media attention and building solidarity, typically need continued organizing afterward to turn into policy changes. The movement scheduled a follow-up demonstration for March 28.
The February 7 Commemoration
Three days after Homan’s announcement, hundreds of demonstrators assembled at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building marking one month since Good’s killing. A Lakota spiritual leader, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, led a ceremony at the front of the crowd filled with people holding signs and American flags. Others shared music and poetry.
Scores of protesters threw bottles and sex toys at a line of police guarding the property. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s office stated that arrests began after the crowd started throwing chunks of ice and some property was damaged. A deputy was hit in the head, and a squad vehicle’s windshield was smashed.
Police declared the gathering unlawful and ordered demonstrators to leave. Many complied, but about 100 remained in a standoff with deputies, state troopers, and state conservation officers. At least 42 arrests were made.
The shift in tactics from the largely peaceful civil disobedience on January 23 to the more confrontational February 7 commemoration showed disagreements within the movement about strategy and escalation. Some participants thought destroying property and confronting police was the next step they needed after the partial federal concession proved insufficient. Others worried that confrontational tactics would alienate moderate partners and give the feds ammunition to claim the protests were violent.
Historical Parallels
The most direct historical parallel is the Portland, Oregon Occupy ICE movement of 2018. In June 2018, protesters kept the facility closed for 10 days through occupation tactics. This sparked a nationwide shift in tactics, moving beyond simple demonstrations to blocking ICE from working.
The Twin Cities campaign employed different tactics—general strike and mass action rather than facility occupation. Facility occupations make it hard for ICE to operate but also increase legal consequences dramatically, with federal trespassing charges and possible federal prosecution. They tried to create similar pressure through economic disruption and mass participation rather than physical blockade.
The role of faith leaders in the campaign resembled the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. During that era, the Sanctuary Movement saved thousands of lives and helped convince the U.S. government to recognize the refugee status of Central Americans fleeing death squads. In 2026, participation by faith leaders revived similar tactics of religious authority.
The Ferguson demonstrations of 2014 provide another instructive comparison. Like the Twin Cities in 2026, Ferguson involved immediate nationwide demonstrations, ongoing action, and federal officers using tear gas and pepper spray against demonstrators. Yet Ferguson produced different outcomes—a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Wilson, and no systemic policy changes resulted from the action. This shows that even massive ongoing demonstrations don’t necessarily produce criminal justice outcomes, especially when the same administration controls the justice system and conducts the enforcement.
What Comes Next
The partial federal concession—withdrawal of 700 officers while maintaining 2,000—leaves things murky. Federal officials framed this as contingent on local cooperation, not movement victory. Tom Homan’s statement that further drawdowns depend on decreased “violence, rhetoric and attacks against ICE and Border Patrol” gives them a way to send more officers back if demonstrations continue.
This creates a scenario where the movement faces pressure to stop—from within (members celebrating partial victory and experiencing exhaustion) and externally (federal threats of escalation if pressure continues). Mayor Jacob Frey publicly called for complete ICE withdrawal, stating “The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws.”
Criminal justice outcomes remain uncertain. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s federal lawsuit against DHS was denied preliminary injunction but remains ongoing. State prosecution was still possible on paper, though federal authorities refused to let local police officers or the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension—which specializes in police shootings—have access to the crime scene.
The sustainability of the alliance remains uncertain. The movement bridged labor unions, radical political organizations, faith communities, and student organizations. But these groups have different ideas about how long to keep going and how much risk to take. University students face academic consequences. Workers risk employment consequences. Faith leaders risked arrest but with some legal protections. After the one-month campaign peak, keeping everyone coordinated gets harder.
The anti-ICE campaign demonstrates that large-scale alliance-based demonstrations remain achievable in contemporary America, and that federal agencies respond to ongoing pressure by giving up some ground. Yet the partial agent withdrawal—leaving 2,000 of 2,700 officers operating—suggests the movement changed how ICE operates but didn’t meet the protesters’ demands.
The movement’s path forward depends on whether it can maintain alliance action, turn street protests into political power that lasts, and stay focused on changing how institutions work over the long run rather than celebrating partial victories. The March 28 demonstration will test whether the alliance that formed in subzero temperatures can maintain its momentum into spring.
The shooting of Renée Nicole Macklin Good sparked the economic blackout. That single day brought together over 50,000 marchers, 700 closed businesses, and arrests of faith leaders at the airport. It forced a federal response—700 officers withdrawn—but left 2,000 still operating. The February 7 commemoration turned more confrontational, with property destruction and 42 arrests, revealing tensions about whether to escalate or consolidate gains.
The movement achieved something measurable: 700 officers withdrawn through ongoing pressure. It failed to achieve its stated goals: complete withdrawal, criminal prosecution, and policy change. That gap between partial victory and full demands creates the central tension for what comes next. Federal officials framed the withdrawal as conditional on decreased resistance. But stopping without achieving core demands risks making it normal to have federal officers permanently stationed—2,000 of them—in Minnesota.
The March 28 demonstration will reveal whether this alliance can work through that tension, or whether the coalition that formed in subzero temperatures will fracture before achieving its goals.
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