Hundreds of people gathered for an impromptu protest downtown later on Sunday. Many there expressed anger and sadness about the immigration operation. Protesters repeatedly chanted: “No more Minnesota nice, Minneapolis will strike.”
Among those chanting was Felix Johnson, who said he protested for the first time in his life a few weeks ago when he saw a video which appeared to show a four-year-old girl who was left in a car after her father was detained by ICE.
He held a sign that read “ICE out”, while dozens of other posters in the crowd included profanities directed at immigration officials.
“I don’t understand how they can come in and just start snatching people that are citizens and start treating them like they’re animals,” Johnson said.
Few Minnesotans the BBC spoke to said they supported ICE operations, but several polls suggest, external about half of voters nationwide support President Trump’s efforts to deport those living in the US illegally.
Other polls indicate voters are split on how Trump is carrying out that crackdown on undocumented immigrants. One conducted by Politico, external shortly after Renee Good’s death this month suggested about half of Americans felt the mass deportation campaign was too aggressive.
At the protest in downtown Minneapolis on Sunday, one man held a sign that read “Veterans Against ICE”.
“I joined [the military] to serve a country that, while never perfect, was a country that was improving, that was growing,” he said.
“I joined to support the tenets of freedom of this country and what we’re seeing here, this is the opposite, this is not promoting freedom. This is horrifying.”