At mass rally, Minnesota students and workers speak out against ICE occupation and in support of general strike
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke to many workers and students at the mass protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 23. Below is a selection of some of the video interviews gathered.
“What ICE is doing is beyond unconstitutional”
“The Democratic Party has almost become a joke at this point.”
“The best thing we can possibly do, a general strike”
Minneapolis teacher: “Educators are supporting the students using their voice but the unions are telling us not to strike”
At the rally an elementary school teacher said, “Working in schools, I have seen a lot of children who are afraid, frustrated and scared. They are protesting at recess times. They are making signs to take home from art class. They are asking me questions about why the government would be kidnapping and killing kids. These are students who are kindergarten through sixth grade. The older students are starting to do their own organizing and walkouts.
“Educators support the students using their voices, but the unions are telling teachers not to strike. It is frustrating to see them say they support us and then when we do something and organize and try to organize a strike, they suddenly oppose us.
“The system that we have is not working. We need to come together and make sure that we are supporting the working people’s voice and make a system that works. I work in the same district that I went to school in. It is like night and day, the difference between how it was back then and now. I never had to worry about somebody bringing a gun to school. You know, I never had to worry about whether my classmates would be kidnapped by the government. It is crazy to watch what these kids go through and still be able to persevere and come together and support each other. It should inspire us all.”
Asked what she thought about the role the Democratic Party was playing, she said, “You know, it’s been a lot of big talk but all bark, no bite. Mayor Frey said, ‘Get the f**** out’ to ICE and then he turned around and said he wouldn’t support abolishing it. I think the people who know him and have been around didn’t expect any better from him. It’s all words and no action.
“Governor [Tim] Walz says he’s going to call in the National Guard to support us, then the guard shows up and starts suppressing protesters. Frey says he is going to call the MPD [Minneapolis Police Department] when we all know where they stand. Trying to suggest that the systems that have been oppressing us are suddenly going to be on our side when we all know that they are not, and we are watching them do the opposite is a bunch of bull.”
Asked what she thought about developing a network of rank-and-file committees in the neighborhoods, schools and other workplaces so workers could begin organizing themselves independently of the union apparatus and build the momentum for a real general strike, she said, “I think we've got the guts to do it. We have been able to see over the past week that people are willing to stand with each other. We have to be willing to come in and do the hard work that has to go in behind the scenes to make the big things happen. So, I think that's what we need not just in Minneapolis. We have seen it all over. I have been reading things that people all over the world are sending. Just seeing people from New Zealand and across the earth knowing that what is happening here is wrong and that they are willing to stand up and say they support what we're doing here on the streets is giving us some of the strength we need to keep going.”
Over 100 protest in Detroit against immigration police
Despite wind chills hitting -25 degrees, over 100 people, including youth, middle class people and workers, protested the Trump government’s attack on immigrants in front of the Detroit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in solidarity with the call for a general strike in Minneapolis.
Socialist Equality Party members noted overwhelming support for a mass strike against the Trump government. The majority of attendees took copies of the SEP statement, “For a general strike against ICE violence and Trump’s dictatorship!” Many people came to the rally with homemade signs, including “ICE: Incompetent, Cowardly, Evil,” “ICE out of Minneapolis,” “Cruelty + Chaos of ICE,” “Save Due Process,” “Don’t Forget Her” with several photos of Renee Nicole Good, and “Fight Ignorance, Not Immigrants.”
There were contingents of teachers and nurses. One teacher explained that her mother emigrated from China and is now undocumented. She asked rhetorically, “Am I undocumented too?” A Wayne State University professor said the event was important because of its stance in defense of democratic rights.
The mood was very defiant. There was a lot of anger about the failure of the Democratic Party to mount any real opposition to Trump. When SEP members raised the need for workers to break with the Democrats, they found enormous support among both students and workers. Overall there was a strong sense that these demonstrations were just the beginning.
Protesters gather in downtown Minneapolis
Despite frigid temperatures, tens of thousands are participating in a day of mass protest across Minneapolis against the federal immigration crackdown and occupation of the city by ICE and other paramilitary agencies. Braving sub-zero wind chills, workers, students and immigrant families marched, rallied, and walked out of schools and workplaces in what organizers called a “Day of Truth and Freedom.” Hundreds of small businesses across the Twin Cities closed their doors.
Demonstrators gathered at The Commons near US Bank Stadium and marched through downtown to the Target Center, where an indoor rally is being held. Chants of “Abolish ICE” and “Justice for Renée Good” echoed through the streets, referring to the 37-year-old woman who was killed by ICE agents earlier this month. Participants carried homemade signs and banners calling for the end of the occupation.
Clergy members were arrested during protests at the airport. Demonstrators also rallied at the Whipple Federal Building, where police issued multiple dispersal orders under the pretext that “ice chunks” had been thrown at vehicles.
Friday’s actions come amid escalating acts of repression and provocations by the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance’s inflammatory visit Thursday and reports that ICE agents have been authorized to break into homes without judicial warrants.
In one particularly outrageous case this week, ICE agents chased and arrested a child in the snow, who was shouting “I’m legal! I’m legal!” as they tackled and handcuffed him. A leaked DHS memo confirms that the agency is asserting sweeping, unconstitutional powers in open defiance of the Fourth Amendment.
University of Minnesota students back day of action
Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site spoke to students at the University of Minnesota about the day of action on Friday, January 23, against the occupation of Minneapolis by ICE agents.
“Somalis are being used as scapegoats… America belongs to everyone”
A Somali student explained how her community was being targeted and expressed support for a fight to defend the democratic rights of immigrant and native-born residents alike.
“ICE should get out of Minnesota because they're creating fear. What they're doing is not for safety. Somalis are being used as scapegoats. The government has stolen more tax dollars than Somalis ever did. Somalis are taxpayers. They work and contribute to this country, and they’re also citizens of the United States. Attacking a whole community is dehumanization.
“Bringing in soldiers with guns to deal with civilians is not how America should be. Right now, America is not America. Trump and the government are trying to hide what they are doing by making American citizens go against each other. In 2025, Americans were opposing how billions in tax dollars were going to Israel. They are focusing on Somalis to shift the problem.”
She continued, “Somalis were brought here by the United States. They were migrants who fled war and instability. In the 1990s, when the war happened, America was involved there. So when you destroy people and their houses, and then bring them to your country, you should be respectful. You shouldn’t be telling them to get out.
“We’re just Americans like others who came to this country, Mexicans, Asians. America doesn’t belong to one specific color, race, or people. It belongs to everyone. Somalis are part of the working class, and they are not different from anyone else. We work, pay taxes, and do everything that any American citizen does.”
She concluded with a somber warning, “If today it is Somalis who are being picked out and you are silent or agree with Trump, then tomorrow it's going to be you next. Last year, you never heard about Somalis, and no one would have expected they would be picked out. You can be next. So stand up for what’s right and don’t fear anyone. Because if we are afraid, nothing can change. But if we come together, united, we can deal with so much more.”
“I work in emergency medicine, and people who have interactions with ICE are beaten, bruised, and have broken bones”
WSWS reporters also spoke with a student who works as an Emergency Medical Technician. Speaking about the ICE occupation, she said, “It’s ridiculous and completely unnecessary, violent, and harmful to people who rightfully live here. I am completely against it.”
Asked what she thought about Vice President JD Vance coming to Minneapolis, she said, “What does he have to say about people dying and getting injured? I haven't heard a single thing about that, but he will come in and praise the people who are doing it. It’s completely against what America stands for. I just don’t like that at all.
“I work in emergency medicine, and I see people after they have interactions with ICE. They are beaten, bruised, and have broken bones. Sometimes the ICE officers demand to come with us to the hospital, and they take them right after they get fixed.
“They are just terrorizing the American people. They say immigrants will bring domestic terrorism, but you guys are the domestic terrorists.”
Referring to ICE agents demanding information about the immigration status of patients, she said, “In most of the hospitals I have seen, the staff, the nurses, and the doctors don’t stand for that and will not give information. They are respecting patient privacy. I love to hear my coworkers tell me about the interactions they have with ICE agents, where they tell them what they’re doing is despicable and horrible. But they don’t care.”
Asked what she thought of the Democrats enabling Trump’s attacks, she said, “I voted for Democrats in every election. And just to see them completely go against what I stand for is frustrating, disappointing, and annoying. It’s embarrassing to even call myself a Democrat. It’s almost just like the Republican Party at this point.”
Commenting on the strike of 15,000 nurses in New York City, she said, “I love to see them fighting the horrible treatment they’re getting, underpaid, overworked, and understaffed. It’s ridiculous, and now they are not even getting health care. They are the ones providing health care to American citizens, and they are not even getting it in return. That’s ridiculous.
“I’m glad they are striking and standing up for themselves. It’s getting frustrating for them and other health care workers who are getting mistreated. You hear of these non-profit hospitals, and they are for profits. It doesn’t matter if they call themselves not-for-profit. They only care about patient satisfaction when it benefits them. It has nothing to do with actual patient care.”
Asked what she thought of developing a genuine movement of the working class beyond January 23, including a general strike, she said, “I would completely support that. That’s what is really going to hit the government. They don’t care about people. They care about money. What's really going to impact them is making them realize we won't stand for this. We don’t want ICE here. We don’t want you taking our immigrant neighbors or random people.”
For a general strike against ICE violence and Trump’s dictatorship!
The following statement will be distributed at demonstrations and protests organized in Minneapolis and other cities throughout the US on January 23, 2026.
Today, workers and young people are taking to the streets in Minneapolis and across the US to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) occupation of Minneapolis, the murder of Renée Nicole Good, and the Trump administration’s escalating assault on democratic rights.
There is a powerful and growing sentiment for mass action, expressed in calls for a general strike to demand an end to police violence, repression and attacks on both immigrants and citizens. Today’s protests are an important step forward, but January 23 cannot be seen as an endpoint. Rather, they must become the launching point for a nationwide counter-offensive by the working class against the conspiracy for dictatorship.
It is necessary to ask and to answer the question: What next?
The response of the Trump administration to opposition is escalation and provocation. The White House is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, effectively placing Minneapolis under martial law. Active-duty Army soldiers from Fort Bragg and the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska have been placed on alert for possible deployment to Minnesota.
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Minneapolis on the eve of today’s demonstrations to deliver a show of force alongside ICE agents, hailing their work and defending the murder of Good. Vance said he wanted to end “the chaos” in the city and called upon local Democrats to deploy police forces to suppress popular opposition, which he blamed on “left-wing agitators.”
On Wednesday night, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino led federal forces in a violent crackdown against protesters, deploying tear gas and making arrests outside a Minneapolis convenience store after a worker refused to serve them. Earlier in the day, ICE agents detained a five-year old child, Liam Ramos, who was used as bait to lure out family members. He and his father are now in an ICE prison in Texas.
Every fundamental democratic right is under assault. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo leaked this week authorized ICE agents to break into homes without judicial warrants, effectively obliterating the Fourth Amendment and its protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
To develop a counter-offensive, certain fundamental facts must be recognized. First, what is happening in Minneapolis is the spearhead of a broader conspiracy to establish a military‑presidential dictatorship in the United States, developed systematically since Trump’s return to power a year ago.
Trump blurted this out at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, declaring “it is sometimes good to have a dictator.” The democratic rights guaranteed in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being obliterated, and the measures now being used against immigrants and protesters will be directed against all opposition, particularly in the working class.
Read the rest of the statement here.
In Minneapolis press conference, JD Vance defends ICE killers, calls on Democrats, local police to suppress popular opposition
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis, Minnesota to defend immigration police and blamed “far-left” agitators for causing “chaos” in the city. Vance said he came to the city in part to study the “weird reaction” of residents to masked, unaccountable federal goons assaulting, shooting, and killing people.
Vance’s provocative visit comes one day before tens of thousands of Minnesota workers and residents are set to hold a mass protest against the ongoing federal occupation of the state and the refusal of the Trump administration to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross for the murder of Renée Nicole Good.
In the 30-minute press conference, Vance, standing in front of ICE vehicles and flanked by immigration Gestapo, praised federal agents, saying they are doing a “fantastic job” in spite of “far-left agitators,” who he claimed were causing “chaos” by defending their neighbors, friends and family members from being abducted and sent to for-profit concentration camps.
Vance defended the killing of Good, falsely claiming she “rammed” Ross with her car, and said that he did not want to “pre-judge” an investigation, which he claimed was ongoing, or let Ross be subjected to a “kangeroo court.” Video evidence, seen by the vast majority of the country, flatly contradicts Vance’s lying statement.
Underscoring that Ross was in no danger when he murdered Good, on Thursday, the law firm Romanucci & Blandin, which is representing Good’s family, released an independent autopsy confirming Ross shot her three times: once in the left forearm, once in her right breast, and the final fatal gunshot through the right side of her head at the temple. The bullet exited the left side of her head.
Obviously, if Ross had been “rammed” by Good, he would not have been able to fire three separate gunshots into her body and calmly walk away from the scene without suffering any injuries.
After shooting Good three times, neither Ross nor any other immigration thug provided any medical care to the dying mother and also prevented local residents and healthcare workers from providing assistance. More than six minutes after Good was shot, firefighters reached her and discovered she still had a “thready and irregular” pulse.
The same vice president who slandered Good as a “domestic terrorist” and a “deranged leftist” some 24 hours after she was murdered by Ross just over two weeks ago, called on local Democratic politicians to help him “lower the temperature.”
“Local officials,” Vance said, have “influence over the people” and should “tell them to cooperate” with the immigration police. In order to “lower the temperature,” Vance called on Democrats to order local police to round up protesters and residents who object to the ongoing occupation.
In order to further facilitate illegal kidnappings and abductions, Vance called for local politicians to provide the various police agencies within the Department of Homeland Security with state records.
“What we would like to do is talk to local officials and say, ‘You know what, according to the Medicaid rolls, where was the last address this person was domiciled?’ Or according to a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) application, a food stamp application, maybe that can give us insight as to where that person is today,” he said.
Minnesota healthcare workers, many of whom will be participating in the January 23 demonstration, have reported to the WSWS that ICE agents are operating inside hospitals. One emergency medical technician said that after healthcare workers stabilize residents and immigrants who have been assaulted by ICE, they are quickly kidnapped.
In a brief question-and-answer session held after Vance’s remarks, the vice president defended DHS agents using administrative warrants to break into people’s private residences, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects residents from illegal searches and seizures without a judicial warrant. In another lie, Vance said, “Nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant.”
Following the press conference, the media presented Vance’s comments as an acknowledgment that immigration police had made mistakes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Vance defended the killing of Good and promised that kidnapping operations would continue.
Vance’s comments underscore that the only social force that can defend democratic rights is the working class, organized independently of both capitalist parties and the system they defend.
Federal agents use 5-year-old child as bait to seize family members in Minneapolis suburb
Federal immigration agents in a Minneapolis suburb seized a 5-year-old child, Liam Conejo Ramos, on Wednesday, in an operation local school officials say deliberately used the child as “bait” to facilitate the arrest of his family members.
Liam’s father, Conejo Arias, was grabbed by ICE officers in the driveway of his home after returning from picking up his son from preschool. After his detention, another adult who lives in the home and was outside at the time of the arrest, “begged the agents” to leave the child in their care, according to school officials. ICE agents refused and instead instructed the 5-year-old to knock on the door of his home to determine whether anyone else was inside.
The child “was essentially used as bait,” Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said at a press conference Wednesday. “Why detain a 5-year-old? You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Stenvik added.
Approximately 20 minutes later, Liam’s middle-school-aged brother returned home to find that his younger brother and father had been taken away. Both were transported out of state and are now being held in San Antonio in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, according to family representatives.
Their attorney, Marc Prokosch, said the family has an active asylum case and has complied with all immigration requirements. “I want to point out that they have done every single thing the right way and that they were supposed to in every step of their immigration process,” Prokosch said, adding that the father, an immigrant from Ecuador, does not have a criminal record. Liam’s detention may be legal under current immigration law, Prokosch said, but “legal doesn’t mean it’s moral.”
Prokosch said he is exploring whether to file a habeas corpus petition in Texas challenging the child’s detention, while also examining the family’s broader immigration case. A GoFundMe campaign titled “Help Bring 5-year-old Liam Home” has already raised over $156,000 in less than 24 hours.
The appeal notes that for over 24 hours, Liam’s mother “had no idea where her son and husband were—she only learned of their whereabouts when the father was finally able to call from Texas.”
During his provocative visit to Minneapolis Thursday, Vice President JD Vance defended the actions of the agents, claiming they were protecting the child after his father fled. “Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” Vance said. “If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who have violated the law because they have children then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
On the same day as Liam’s seizure, Stenvik said a 17-year-old high school student was taken by armed and masked agents while on the way to school, without a parent present. Two weeks earlier, a 10-year-old girl was taken by ICE agents on her way to elementary school and remains in a Texas detention center with her mother. Last week, another 17-year-old student was detained with her mother at their apartment.
District leaders also confirmed that an ICE vehicle drove onto Columbia Heights High School property Tuesday and approached a loading dock before administrators instructed the agent to leave.
Columbia Heights is a diverse north metro suburban district, where more than 50 percent of students identify as Hispanic or Latino. Across the Twin Cities, school districts have reported sharp attendance declines as families keep children home amid heightened fear of immigration enforcement near schools and bus stops. Columbia Heights officials said that on one day, nearly one-third of students were absent.
“The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken,” Stenvik said. “The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children, our families, our staff, and our community members.”
Vance visit comes days after Governor Walz’s appeal to Trump to “help restore calm and order”
US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Minneapolis Thursday followed a public invitation two days earlier by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for President Trump to visit the city. “I invite you to join me, and others in our community to help restore calm and order and reaffirm that true public safety comes from shared purpose, trust and respect,” Walz wrote in a statement posted on X.
Walz made his appeal after weeks of sustained protests and neighborhood confrontations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the murder of 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good by an ICE agent. Workers, students and young people have repeatedly taken to the streets to oppose raids that have generated widespread fear in immigrant and working class communities. On Friday, January 23, thousands are expected to take part in a citywide day of action to demand the removal of ICE and the prosecution of Good’s murderers.
Walz changed his tone from his previous criticism of the surge of 2,000 agents, which he described as “a war that’s being waged against Minnesota.” Far from calling for mass resistance to oppose the attack on democratic rights, Walz has urged residents to rely on the courts and elections. Walz has also urged Trump to “turn down the temperature” after the president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to crush opposition.
The governor’s invitation was issued one day after Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison were served grand jury subpoenas as part of a Justice Department investigation into false allegations that Democratic officials have conspired to hinder ICE operations in Minnesota. In fact, local police have protected ICE agents and suppressed protests.
In his remarks in Minneapolis, Vance declared he had come “to turn down the temperature” and “end the chaos.” Vance said Trump did not see the need to invoke the Insurrection Act “right now,” but urged Democratic officials to deploy state and local law enforcement to suppress anti-ICE protests, which he characterized as being led by left-wing agitators.
While there are tactical differences between the two corporate-controlled parties over rhetoric and presentation, both agree on the necessity of state repression to confront the mass opposition that has erupted in Minneapolis. This only underscores the need for the growing movement by workers and youth to be politically independent of the Democratic Party and the trade union apparatus, which is aligned with it.
UPS workers back Minneapolis general strike, oppose Teamsters sabotage of walkout against ICE
UPS workers in Minneapolis expressed support for a city-wide general strike on Friday, January 23, to force the withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary forces from the city and secure the prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Minneapolis resident Renée Nicole Good.
Workers spoke to WSWS reporters at the UPS distribution/sorting facility in Minneapolis Wednesday afternoon amid escalating opposition to the Trump administration’s militarized occupation of the city. Federal immigration agents, backed by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tactical units, have already arrested more than 3,000 residents in sweeping operations that have targeted entire neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. The repression has provoked weeks of protests, high school walkouts and community demonstrations across Minnesota.
In response, a coalition of unions and community organizations called for a city-wide “day of action” on Friday, urging residents to participate in “no work, no school, no shopping.” Workers interpreted the call as a general strike to use the power of the working class to shut down economic activity and oppose state repression.
However, the trade union apparatus has moved swiftly to suppress any independent action by workers. Teamsters Local 638, which has over 5,000 members in Minnesota and North Dakota, circulated a letter warning members that participation in a work stoppage would violate their labor agreements with the corporate bosses. “The collective bargaining agreement that applies to you includes a no-strike provision, so you are not legally permitted to strike,” the statement declared.
UPS workers spoke with WSWS reporters, sharply criticizing both the federal crackdown and the efforts by union officials to block collective action.
“We are not doing anything on Friday. It’s a general strike,” one worker said. “No work, no school, no shopping. If we can shut the economy down, that’s the goal. No ICE. Get out. That’s the only thing that’ll do it. Workers got to take the power. It’s ours to take.”
“The union official I spoke to said they can’t support it because it’s a work stoppage, so it doesn’t sound like Teamsters are backing us up,” he said.
Read the rest of the article here.