Crowds rallied in dozens of cities across the nation on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, hoping to build on momentum from demonstrations on Friday against federal operations targeting Minneapolis and other liberal-leaning cities.
In Minneapolis — where federal agents have clashed repeatedly with demonstrators in recent months — a rally was punctured with moments of tension, as sheriffs’ deputies made several arrests that some protesters deemed to be violent, knocking over some people as they chased others.
Hundreds of people rallied in the afternoon outside Los Angeles City Hall, where Isaac G. Bryan, a Democratic state legislator, spoke to the crowd, encouraging them to keep up their protests and pointing to Minneapolis as a model. Noting the Trump administration’s decision to move Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol commander widely criticized for aggressive tactics, from Minnesota, Assemblyman Bryan said it had happened “because the people of Minneapolis had had enough.”
An afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., swelled to become one of the largest protests the city had seen in months, joined by demonstrators from other events held earlier in the day. Thousands of people crowded into Elizabeth Caruthers Park, near the ICE facility in Portland, for a rally that was supported by several major labor unions.
“This gathering, the size and energy, is unique,” said Jackson Casimiro, 28, a filmmaker who lives in Portland.
Derek Boyd, 46, a dental assistant, came to the protest equipped with a leaf blower to try repel tear gas. “We have to let them know we won’t tolerate this,” he said of the aggressive way in which federal agents have confronted detainees and demonstrators.
Several dozen counterprotesters also appeared, marching past the park chanting, “God bless ICE.” People at the rally tried to drown out the chants by blowing whistles and shouting insults.
The large crowd marched from the park to Bancroft Street outside the ICE facility, which the local police had blocked off to exclude vehicles. Tensions mounted around 4:30 p.m. when federal agents fired volleys of tear gas canisters into the crowd, which included numerous families with children and others unused to Portland’s sometimes fractious street protests. The crowd soon dwindled to a few hundred people.
In Minneapolis, about 100 people gathered in frigid weather on Saturday morning outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building, where federal agents have been detaining suspected undocumented immigrants who have been arrested in the Twin Cities area. Protesters blew whistles and blared air horns.
Protest activity intensified across the nation in January in support of the residents of Minneapolis, who have faced an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign by the Trump administration. President Trump announced on Saturday in a social media post that ICE and Border Patrol agents would begin guarding federal buildings, which have become targets for protesters.
The killings of two people in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both American citizens — by federal agents taking part in the immigration crackdown ignited a powder keg in public opinion over the past week.
Hoping to tamp down public anger, President Trump sent his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis to oversee the immigration enforcement operation there in place of Mr. Bovino.
Church bells pealed solemnly throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday, expressing solidarity with protesters and with people facing deportation.
Meghan Gage-Finn, a senior associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian in Minneapolis, said that while the bells were a familiar sound to her, their music on Saturday meant something different.
Protesters outside Los Angeles City Hall on Saturday held signs denouncing ICE.Credit…Apu Gomes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“I hear them all day long, they ring throughout the day, throughout the week,” she said. “But to hear them ringing out in solidarity and in response to what this community is experiencing, I heard them in a new way.”
Some protesters have criticized the prosecution of demonstrators who were accused of interrupting a church service in St. Paul, where a pastor is an ICE official. Two journalists who were present at the incident, including the former CNN reporter Don Lemon, also have been charged.
Opponents of the administration’s immigration agenda rallied on Saturday in towns and cities, including some that have themselves been targets of aggressive enforcement operations.
About a dozen people conducted a sit-down protest against ICE at a Trump building in New York.
Nearly 100 protesters rallied in Fair Lawn, N.J., a community outside New York City that is home to many immigrants.
One of them was Alex Babin who came to the United States more than two decades ago from Ukraine. On Saturday, he thought of his homeland as he joined the protest.
“Russia attacked Ukraine trying to take their human rights,” he said. “Trump supports Russia. And now, here in America, innocent people have been killed because of his policies.”
He added, “This demonstration is about following the Constitution of the United States.”
Alba Lucia Morales Jimenez, a professor at Columbia University who immigrated to the United States from Colombia, also joined the protest in Fair Lawn. Though she is a naturalized American citizen, she has lately become worried that her citizenship may still not be enough to protect her from being a target for federal agents.
“I don’t feel safe any more,” Ms. Morales said. “We don’t want to be kidnapped, snatched, threatened, pushed, shoved and shot.”
Mourners gathered Saturday by an impromptu memorial at the site in Minneapolis where Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents. Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Jessica Ochs, a photographer, attended the rally with her husband and 16-year-old son. She said she was frustrated over the killings in Minnesota and the deployment of federal agents across the nation, some of whom have knocked on the doors of her friends.
It was important, she said, for people to keep documenting enforcement activity that they see and to hold federal agents accountable.
“We are all witnesses,” she said. “We all have phones in our pockets. We should use them for something good.”
Claire Fahy contributed reporting from Minneapolis; Mark Bonamo from Fair Lawn, N.J.; Aaron West from Portland, Ore.; Traci Angel from Kansas City; and Nate Schweber from New York.