MINNEAPOLIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Police arrested about 100 clergy members demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota\u2019s largest airport Friday, organizers estimated, as thousands gathered, despite arctic temperatures, in downtown Minneapolis to protest the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s protests are part of a broader movement against President Trump\u2019s increased immigration enforcement across the state, with labor unions, progressive organizations and clergy urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and even shops in Minneapolis and St. Paul.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoughly 100 clergy\u201d members were arrested, according to Trevor Cochlin of Faith in Minnesota, a progressive advocacy group and one of the organizers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. They were protesting the deportation of immigrants from the facility. Authorities have not said how many people were detained at the airport. <\/p>\n
Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Jeff Lea said the protesters were arrested outside the main terminal because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations.<\/p>\n
Protesters demand that ICE leave Minnesota<\/p>\n
The Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne traveled from Cheyenne, Wyo., to participate in the rally in downtown Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening here is clearly immoral,\u201d the Unitarian Universalist minister said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that\u2019s dangerous to us is not the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protesters have gathered daily in the Twin Cities since Jan. 7, when Renee Good was fatally shot<\/a> by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Federal law enforcement officers have repeatedly squared off with community members and activists who track their movements.<\/p>\n Sam Nelson said he skipped work so he could join the march. He said he\u2019s a former student of the Minneapolis high school where federal agents detained someone after class earlier this month. That arrest led to altercations between federal officers and bystanders.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my community,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cLike everyone else, I don\u2019t want ICE on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers said Friday morning that more than 700 businesses statewide have closed in solidarity with the movement, from a bookstore in tiny Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re achieving something historic,\u201d said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of the more than 100 participating groups.<\/p>\n DHS confirms the detention of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old<\/p>\n A 2-year-old named Chloe was detained with her father as they drove home from a grocery store in south Minneapolis on Thursday, according to a GoFundMe page created by Minneapolis City Councilmember Jason Chavez.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol arrested Elvis Tipan Echeverria of Ecuador and that Chloe\u2019s mother refused to take her, so she was reunited with her father at a federal detention facility.<\/p>\n According to an emergency petition filed in federal court, a district judge granted an emergency injunction ordering Chloe\u2019s release into the custody of her lawyer. The child, a citizen of Ecuador who was brought to Minneapolis as a newborn, has a pending asylum application and is not subject to a final order of removal.<\/p>\n