{"id":260785,"date":"2026-01-24T01:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260785\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:38:08","slug":"more-than-100-clergy-arrested-at-anti-ice-protest-in-minnesota-protesters-say-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/260785\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 clergy arrested at anti-Ice protest in Minnesota, protesters say \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local police arrested dozens of clergy members who sang hymns and prayed as they knelt on a road at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport as part of a day of protests \u200dand walkouts on Friday against US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s deployment of thousands of immigration enforcement officers in the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n

The protest was part of an \u201cICE<\/a> OUT!\u201d day of action, with organisers and participants saying scores of businesses across Minnesota closed for the day and \u200dworkers headed to street protests and marches in what they described as a general strike.<\/p>\n

The protest came after senior Trump administration<\/a> officials called for co-operation with local Democratic<\/a> leaders to calm tension after weeks of sometimes violent confrontations between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and protesters opposed to Trump\u2019s crackdown on immigrants.<\/p>\n

Ahead of an afternoon rally downtown in frigid weather, hundreds of people headed to the state\u2019s main airport. Organisers said their demands included legal accountability for the Ice agent who fatally shot Renee Good, a \u200cUS citizen, in her car this month as she monitored Ice activities.<\/p>\n

They ignored commands to clear the road by officers from local police departments, who arrested and zip-tied dozens of the protesters, who did not resist, before putting them \u2060on to buses. Reuters observed dozens of arrests, and organisers said about 100 clergy members were arrested.<\/p>\n

Faith in Minnesota, a non-profit advocacy group that helped organise the protest, said the clergy were \u200calso \u200bcalling attention \u200dto airport and airline workers who they said had been detained by Ice at work. The group asked that airline companies \u201cstand with Minnesotans in calling for Ice to immediately end its surge in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators take part in a march during the ‘ICE Out’ day of protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: Brandon Bell\/Getty <\/p>\n

Across the state, bars, restaurants and shops were shuttering for the day, according to organisers and participants.<\/p>\n

Many Minneapolis workers were heading downtown for a march and rally, intended by organisers to be the largest display of opposition yet to the federal government\u2019s surge, which mayor Jacob Frey and other Democrats \u2060have likened to an invasion.<\/p>\n

Miguel Hernandez, a community organiser who closed his business, Lito\u2019s Bakery in Minneapolis for the day, put on four layers, wool socks and a parka before heading out to protest.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish man risks US retaliation for unmasking thousands of Ice officers onlineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this were any \u2060other time, no one would\u2019ve gone out,\u201d he said, bracing for the \u2060weather. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s a message of solidarity with our community, that we see the pain and misery that\u2019s going on in the streets, and it\u2019s a message to our politicians that they have to do more than grandstand on the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Trump, a Republican<\/a>, launched the Minnesota crackdown in part in response \u200dto fraud allegations against some members of the state\u2019s large community of people of Somali origin.<\/p>\n

He has called Somali immigrants \u201cgarbage\u201d and said they are to be removed from the country as part of his effort to expel more immigrants, including some admitted into the country to seek asylum and other lawful residents, than any of his predecessors.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe day of protest drew large crowds in Minneapolis on Friday. Photograph: Stephen Maturen\/Getty <\/p>\n

Minnesota residents have responded with anger, making noise in the streets day and night with whistles and musical instruments. Some agents and protesters have yelled obscenities at each other, and agents have deployed tear gas and flash-bang grenades to scatter crowds.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration says some protesters have harassed agents and obstructed their work. Senior Trump administration officials have gone to Minneapolis to defend Ice, with vice-president JD Vance telling reporters during his Thursday visit the administration is \u201cdoing everything we can to lower the temperature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Patty O\u2019Keefe, a 36-year-old non-profit worker, said she would be among those willing to join Friday\u2019s march and \u201cexpose ourselves to the \u200celements to demonstrate the level of anger \u200cand frustration that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to be under siege from the federal government, and it feels like we need to do more because our normal forms of protest and resistance have shown to not be enough yet to really send a strong enough message to Trump,\u201d she said. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local police arrested dozens of clergy members who sang hymns and prayed as they knelt on a road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14843,969,42,66408,5461,43,16621,40,38,41,39,20966,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-260785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-democratic-party","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","12":"tag-jd-vance","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-republican-party","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-trump-presidency","20":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}