The United States is preparing for a massive winter storm that will hit the country from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England on the east coast. The cold that this storm brings caused temperatures to be lower in Chicago than in Antarctica; in Minneapolis, thermometers read 20°C below zero at the coldest times of the day.
None of this could stop the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets to protest against Trump’s scandalous anti-immigration policy, which deployed ICE in several states across the country to carry out massive raids and deportations, focused on states governed by Democrats and the so-called sanctuary cities that, in some way, protect illegal immigrants.
The trigger for these mobilizations was January 7 when ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots through the windshield of Renee Nicole Good’s car, all of which was recorded on video.
The increasingly desperate news also comes from the ICE detention centers where abuses of all kinds and murders are reported that are explained as “suicides” on a recurring basis according to relatives of detainees. The brutality of this shock force that is reminiscent of Nazi gangs is increasingly exposed, arrests of teenagers and even children are everyday situations.
The demonstrations were spontaneous in Minneapolis, they have a tragic history of police repression and racism, it is the same place where George Floyd was murdered in 2020 after being suffocated for more than 10 minutes.
The demonstrations in Minneapolis were repeated every day, and so were the confrontations with ICE. Outrage was reignited with the case of Liam Conejo Ramos, five years old, and his father Adrian Conejo Arias, an Ecuadorian national, arrested on Tuesday when they arrived at their residence. According to school district authorities, the minor was used as “bait” by immigration agents to knock on the door of the house and try to get the people inside to come out.
Tens of thousands of Minnesotans, chanting “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” marched through downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon to demand that ICE leave the state. Organizers estimate that 50,000 people or more took to the streets, although some estimates were lower and others were as high as 100,000.
Sympathy for the protest among city workers forced hundreds of owners to close their businesses, while many did so out of genuine solidarity with the cause and in rejection of Trump’s brutal policies.
News of Friday’s strike and protests spread “like wildfire” in the days leading up to it, according to Jake Anderson, an executive board member of the St. Paul Federation of Educators, a union representing teachers and educational support professionals. The educational sector is one of those that faces ICE the most, organizing safe brokers between teachers and parents so that students can go to and from schools.
The protests were replicated in other cities in the country. New York was another of the important centers where thousands of people mobilized towards the emblematic Union Square. Once again, the teachers were key figures of the day, but the teachers’ union was also present. Teamsters (truckers).
As Emma, from Left Voice, explains, many unions avoided calling for a strike, hiding behind various limits imposed by the country’s legislation, but they had to call the members of their organizations in other ways because the feeling among them is one of absolute solidarity. And the desire to fight is seen and felt in the streets.
In Los Angeles, where the immigrant rights movement recently forced Trump to withdraw the National Guard, the service employees union SEIU called a protest. This shows that the union movement is beginning to play a larger role in the fight for immigrant rights.
Other solidarity actions were carried out in Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Newark, Kansas City, West Palm Beach, San Francisco and other cities. What this means for the fight against the far right in the United States will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. What is clear is that the resistance against ICE in Minneapolis, in which workers have played a prominent role, has changed the debate. People are beginning to understand our own power as workers—reinforced by popular support for immigrants—to paralyze everything with clear demands: Abolish ICE! Close all detention centers! Jail Jonathan Ross and all the killer cops! And end the terror of ICE!
Hundreds of Atlanta students at Duluth High walk out in solidarity with Minnesota against ICE terror today! pic.twitter.com/5szxDtIaiq
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) January 23, 2026
🚨🔥NEW: Portland, Maine just joined Minneapolis with a MASSIVE anti-ICE protest tonight.
GOOD.
They thought Minnesota would break in silence. Instead it sparked a chain reaction.
One city stands up, the whole country starts to move. pic.twitter.com/9suWv7cLz1
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) January 24, 2026
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
