Mass Demonstrations Erupt in Minnesota Against Federal Immigration Operations
In a dramatic display of civil disobedience, approximately 100 clergy members were arrested on Friday at Minnesota's largest airport while protesting immigration enforcement policies. The arrests occurred as thousands of demonstrators braved Arctic temperatures in downtown Minneapolis to voice opposition to the Trump administration's intensified immigration crackdown across the state.
Airport Arrests and Subzero Solidarity
According to Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Jeff Lea, the faith leaders received misdemeanor citations for trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer before being released. The arrests took place outside the main terminal of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after protesters exceeded their permitted demonstration area and disrupted airline operations. The clergy had gathered specifically to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to oppose what the Department of Homeland Security has described as its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul explained that police ordered the group to leave, but she and others chose to remain and face arrest as a show of support for migrants, including congregation members who fear leaving their homes. "We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota," Tollgaard declared, planning to return to her church after brief detention to hold a prayer vigil.
Meanwhile, in downtown Minneapolis where temperatures plunged to minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius), the Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne traveled from Cheyenne, Wyoming to join the rally. "What's happening here is clearly immoral," said the Unitarian Universalist minister. "It's definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that's dangerous to us is not the weather."
Community Mobilization and Business Closures
The protests represent part of a broader movement against President Donald Trump's immigration policies in Minnesota, with labor unions, progressive organizations, and religious leaders urging residents to avoid work, school, and shopping. Organizers reported that more than 700 businesses statewide closed in solidarity on Friday, ranging from a small bookstore in Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.
"We're achieving something historic," said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of over 100 participating groups. The demonstrations have occurred daily in the Twin Cities since January 7th, when 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, leading to repeated confrontations between federal agents and community activists.
Child Detentions Spark Legal Challenges
In a particularly contentious development, a 2-year-old child was reunited with her mother on Friday after being detained with her father outside their South Minneapolis home. Lawyer Irina Vaynerman told The Associated Press that they had quickly challenged the family's detention in federal court. The petition revealed that the child, an Ecuadorian citizen brought to the U.S. as a newborn, and her father, Elvis Tipan Echeverria, both have pending asylum applications and no final removal orders.
Despite a U.S. district judge's Thursday order prohibiting the government from transferring the toddler out of state, she and her father were placed on a commercial flight to Texas approximately twenty minutes later, according to court documents. They were subsequently flown back on Friday. DHS stated that agents arrested Tipan Echeverria during a targeted operation and claimed the child's mother refused to take the child, though Vaynerman disputed this account.
Separately, DHS reiterated allegations that the father of 5-year-old Liam Ramos abandoned him during an arrest in Columbia Heights on Tuesday, resulting in the child's detention. Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin asserted that Liam was detained because his father "fled from the scene," with both now held at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas. The family's attorney Marc Prokosch countered that the mother likely refused to open the door to ICE officers out of fear of detention, while Columbia Heights district superintendent Zena Stenvik characterized Liam as being "used as bait."
Autopsy Details and Media Controversy
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released an initial autopsy report classifying Renee Good's death as a homicide caused by "multiple gunshot wounds." A more detailed independent autopsy commissioned by Good's family revealed that one bullet pierced the left side of her head and exited on the right side, with additional wounds to her arm and breast that weren't immediately fatal.
During Friday's developments, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino attempted to redirect attention from Liam's detention by criticizing news media coverage. He argued that insufficient attention had been given to children who lost parents to violence committed by individuals in the country illegally, briefly mentioning the 5-year-old before discussing a mother of five killed in August 2023.
As Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for Good's family, noted in a statement, the family continues to await the complete report from the medical examiner while hoping for communication before any further public release of information. The spokesperson for their legal firm indicated that funeral arrangements remain undetermined at this time.
