MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Students, teachers and workers staged walkouts and joined rallies in dozens of cities Friday after the Minneapolis ICE shootings — involving officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol — reignited outrage over federal immigration tactics. Organizers said the coordinated shutdown was meant to pressure the Trump administration to reduce its Minnesota deployment and support outside investigations into the deaths, Jan. 30, 2026.
In Minneapolis, demonstrators marched through subfreezing temperatures and gathered near federal buildings as calls grew for a rollback of Operation Metro Surge. Under the campaign, President Donald Trump has sent roughly 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis area, a presence that protesters say escalated confrontations and set the stage for the Minneapolis ICE shootings, according to a Reuters report.
ABC News said the “National Shutdown” message — “no work, no school, no shopping” — helped coordinate demonstrations and school walkouts from the Twin Cities to the coasts, as activists pointed to the Minneapolis ICE shootings as a tipping point in public anger toward immigration enforcement. ABC News reported that both victims were 37-year-old U.S. citizens and that protests also drew attention to arrests of journalists covering the unrest.
How the Minneapolis ICE shootings became a national flashpoint
The Minneapolis ICE shootings stem from two separate encounters this month. Renee Good, described by ABC News as a mother of three, was shot and killed in her vehicle by an ICE officer, Jan. 7. Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was killed in an encounter with Border Patrol officers, Jan. 24, officials said. The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death and said the FBI will lead the probe, the Associated Press reported.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said investigators are “looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened.” AP reported that multiple videos appear to show Pretti holding a cellphone as officers tackled him and that he had a state permit to carry a concealed firearm.
As the protests spread, the White House faced questions about whether it would draw down operations or shift to narrower targets. The Washington Post reported that demonstrations also filled streets in major cities and that the latest killing intensified scrutiny of the federal response in Minnesota, according to The Washington Post.
In Minneapolis, some participants framed the walkouts as a test of civic pressure, not just grief. One protester told Reuters, “I’m out here because I’m going to fight for the American dream that my parents came here for.” Trump, meanwhile, has defended the operation and praised Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Reuters reported.
Minneapolis ICE shootings in a longer arc
Community organizers say the reaction to the Minneapolis ICE shootings is rooted in a longer history of Minneapolis-centered protest that has repeatedly become national news. During the 2020 unrest after George Floyd’s death, the city’s police 3rd Precinct became a focal point of demonstrations and policy battles, as detailed in a 2020 Minnesota Public Radio investigation. And years before this month’s violence, Reuters documented how “Occupy ICE” encampments and calls to abolish ICE spread across U.S. cities amid backlash to detention and deportation policies in a 2018 Reuters report.
Organizers say the Minneapolis ICE shootings will remain the rallying point for more weekend demonstrations, while federal and internal investigations continue. For Minnesota leaders pressing for a pullback, the central question is whether the federal government reduces its presence — or doubles down — as the Minneapolis ICE shootings reshape the political and legal fight over immigration enforcement.
