Economic blackout day planned in Minnesota to protest ICE surge

Labor unions, community leaders and faith groups are calling for an economic blackout in Minnesota on Friday to protest the surge of federal immigration agents in the state and mourn Renee Good.

Organizers are urging Minnesotans not to work, shop or go to school. The Trump administration has dispatched some 3,000 federal agents to the state, in what it claims amounts to its largest enforcement operation thus far, amid a broader crackdown on immigration.

More than 2,400 people in Minnesota have been arrested in recent weeks. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Good, 37, in Minneapolis earlier this month.

“There is an unprecedented and outrageous attack being waged against the people of Minnesota. I have never seen anything like it in my life,” said Kieran Knutson, the president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 in Minneapolis. “This is just an outrageous acceleration and escalation of violence toward working-class people.”

The CWA, which represents workers in the state at companies including AT&T, Activision and DirecTV, is one of several local unions organizing and supporting the planned economic blackout.

Others include Unite Here Local 17, Saint Paul Federation of Educators and Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59.

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, the president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, said: “Working people, our schools and our communities are under attack. Union members are being detained commuting to and from work, tearing apart families. Parents are being forced to stay home, students held out of school, fearing for their lives, all while the employer class remains silent.”

“I think what generated the idea for this action comes out of the need to figure out what we can meaningfully do to stop it,” said Knutson. “The government in the state of Minnesota has not offered any path towards stopping these attacks, this violence.”

Knutson expressed hope that “the CEOs of all these corporations that are based in Minnesota take notice”.

Large US corporations headquartered in Minnesota include Target, Best Buy, United Healthcare and General Mills. None immediately returned requests for comment.

As the administration continues to send ICE agents to the Minnesota region, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey has complained in recent days that the city’s police are outmanned and outgunned.

“Can our cops arrest them? From a legal perspective, yes,” he said during an interview on the Bulwark podcast. “From a practical perspective, to state the reality, it does get kind of hard when they drastically outnumber us, and they have bigger guns than we do. We don’t want to create warfare in the street.”

A blackout by workers can send a message, Knutson said. “Those of us in the trade union movement understand the leverage and power that our labor has, and we are going to try and use that, because really there’s nothing else left,” he told the Guardian. “The idea is that we use our collective power to show those that rule this country and those that profit off of our labor that there’s a cost to attacking our communities this way.”

Organizers held a press conference last Tuesday, outside of the Hennepin county government center in Minneapolis, to announce that the event, which will also include a march and rally in the city’s downtown at 2pm local time.

“On Friday, January 23, we are calling for a day of truth and freedom,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, a minister and co-executive director of the multi-faith non-profit Isaiah. “It is a day where every single Minnesotan who loves this state and this notion of truth and freedom will refuse to work, to shop, and to go to school. What we have experienced and are experiencing in the state of Minnesota is not normal.”

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the planned economic blackout.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “The fact that those groups want to shut down Minnesota’s economy, which provides law-abiding American citizens an honest living, to fight for illegal alien murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, drug dealers, and terrorists says everything you need to know.”

The spokesperson reiterated the administration’s claim that Good “weaponized” her car before the shooting. This account of the incident has been disputed by local and state leaders in Minnesota, as well as by eyewitnesses. Video footage of the shooting appears to show Good’s vehicle turning away from the officer as he opened fire.

The DHS spokesperson added that “if these community and faith leaders wanted to take a stand for the vulnerable”, they would stand with federal law enforcement officers, whom the spokesperson claimed have faced a sharp increase in assaults and vehicle attacks. They did not provide evidence for this allegation.

“These men and women are moms and dads who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect innocent, law-abiding Americans from the dangerous criminal illegal aliens in their communities,” the spokesperson added.

Under the Trump administration, thousands of people targeted by ICE have no criminal record, and numerous US citizens have also been detained.