On Friday, thousands of people in cities across the country once again walked out of their workplaces and schools to protest the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies and the recent murders of pro-immigrant activists Rene Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Since taking office, the Trump administration has overseen the detention and deportation of at least 400,000 immigrants, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have terrorized several U.S. cities, shooting more than 30 people and killing at least eight more. Meanwhile, at least 38 people (six in the last four weeks) have died in ICE custody, the highest number of immigration deaths for the same period in more than 20 years.

The protests, walkouts, and business closures, called by several student activist groups at the University of Minnesota, come exactly a week after similar actions shut down several hundred businesses in Minneapolis, where, despite the bitter cold, more than 50,000 people marched to demand that ICE leave the city. Last week’s action — the closest a major U.S. city has come to a general strike in decades — and the spontaneous anger that erupted the next day after Pretti’s murder has since forced the Trump administration to reevaluate its strategy.

In what seems to be a partial concession, Trump has relieved the hated CBP commander, Greg Bovino of his duties in Minneapolis and replaced him with his so-called “Border Czar,” Tom Homan. Afraid of further resistance and more massive and militant organization, Trump and local Democratic politicians, including Governor Tim Walz, seem determined to deescalate the situation, but ICE has continued to detain immigrants and harass the people of Minneapolis with impunity, and Homan has vowed to stay in Minneapolis “until the problem is gone.” Nevertheless, today’s protests show that, despite all the attempts to demobilize the working class, people want to keep fighting until ICE is defeated.

The day of action began early Friday morning in Minneapolis, when protesters gathered outside the Whipple Federal Building where hundreds of immigrants kidnapped by ICE have been detained, often without any legal counsel or due process. According to Left Voice reporters on the ground, about 500 people, including workers and community and faith leaders turned out to face off against ICE and kick off the day’s events nationwide. At 2:00 p.m., many more protesters, including many families and students, gathered for the main rally and march at Government Plaza. From there, tens of thousands of protesters marched down seventh street to US Bank Stadium in ten degree weather, chanting “Strike, Strike, Strike” and “ICE out Now!” These chants, and the rising popularity of the idea of a nationwide general strike, show that working people are increasingly convinced that the best way to defeat Trump is through the collective withholding of our labor power.

Though the marches this week may have been slightly smaller and fewer businesses seemed to have been closed compared to last week, it is clear that the people of Minneapolis are still prepared to show up and turn out to defend themselves and their neighbors from ICE terror. Indeed, the mood across the entire city was one of ongoing defiance, steadfastness, and solidarity. Bus drivers were allowing passengers to ride for free, restaurants that were open were giving out food to activists, and cab and rideshare drivers were enthusiastically supporting the protests and shutdowns.

Nationwide Demonstrations and Student Walkouts

In addition to the demonstrations in Minneapolis, there were several other large rallies in major cities across the country, and dozens upon dozens of student walkouts and school closures.

In New York’s Foley Square, several thousand protesters, many of them very young students having their first political experience, gathered once again in bitter freezing temperatures to show their solidarity with immigrants and with Minneapolis. Protest organizers delivered speeches condemning ICE and chanted “General strike, make us proud / Minnesota shut it Down.” Meanwhile, thousands turned out in Downtown Los Angeles to protest ongoing ICE activity in the city and region, where just one county away, a young Santa Ana resident was blinded when ICE agents deployed supposedly non-lethal rounds at close range. Many thousands more marched in several other cities, including Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, and San Francisco.

Most impressive, however, were the incredible number of large university and primary and secondary school student walkouts that took place across the entire country. From Boston and Rhode Island, to Michigan, Alabama and Tucson, Arizona, thousands upon thousands of students and their teachers heeded the call put forward by students at the University of Michigan for a day of No Work, No School, and No Shopping. In Rhode Island, at Brown University, more than a thousand students left their classes and dorms in the freezing cold to rally and march to the state capital chanting “Strike, Strike, Strike!” University students at UMass Boston, Howard University, and several other colleges and universities also walked out.

But by far the largest number of demonstrations seem to have been coordinated by high school students, who walked out in huge numbers in almost every state from Massachusetts to Arizona. In San Leandro, California, for instance, hundreds of high school students from six different high schools walked out together, and more than 3,000 walked out of schools in Long Beach. Meanwhile, In Tucson, where more than 16 percent of the city’s population are immigrants, twenty schools shut down due to staff shortages and sickouts in support of the day of action.

All of this suggests that students and educators are taking the lead in this struggle and that the movement against ICE is quickly becoming a national movement, spreading far beyond Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and New York.

Unions Largely Absent

One of the saddest aspects of today’s demonstrations, however, was the conspicuous absence of unions and labor contingents in Minneapolis and nationwide. On January 23, the leaders of the labor movement were forced by the rank and file to participate in the protests in Minneapolis and across the country. Though those labor leaders did not actually take any actions to prepare for a strike, many did at least publicly support the call to action and mobilized their memberships to participate in marches and rallies. This time, however, the labor bureaucrats did not actively encourage their members to participate in the day of action or support it. Instead they played the same role they have always played, helping the bipartisan regime to keep working class anger and frustration from spilling over into the workplace.

So-called progressive union leaders like Shawn Fain, though he talks tough about an election year general strike in 2028, are not actually interested in the risks associated with building the kind of organized working class power needed to defeat ICE and Trump’s larger reactionary agenda with working class methods of struggle. Instead, just like the Democrats, they want to put the brakes on any working class organization they can’t control to help deescalate the situation in Minneapolis in the hopes that they can direct that working class anger back toward the ballot box in November.

This is why it is vital for working class people, both unionized and non-unionized, to prepare for a genuine general strike in Minneapolis, and for the unions to throw their power and weight behind supporting and defending the students, the movement, immigrants, and the already developing bodies of self-defense that are taking shape against ICE in Minneapolis and other cities across the country.

The post Strikes, Student Walkouts, and Demonstrations Against ICE Continue Across the U.S. appeared first on Left Voice.

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