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Thousands of protesters rallied in Minneapolis on Friday in the latest show of anger over US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, as a prominent journalist was charged over his coverage of protests in the northern city.
Crowds marched with signs blasting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency leading Trump’s mass deportation drive, in response to a call for a “national shutdown” across the United States.
Minneapolis has become the epicentre of the immigration policy backlash after two protesters, both US citizens, were shot dead by federal agents this month.
“I don’t think our federal government should be terrorising our people like this,” Sushma Santhana, 24, told AFP as demonstrators chanted “our streets!” around her.
The crowd gathered in freezing temperatures after Bruce Springsteen performed at an anti-ICE concert in the city. The US rock legend recently released “Streets of Minneapolis,” a tribute to the pair who were gunned down in separate incidents.
Another protester, 24-year-old Max Maffor, said he was demonstrating “to conserve what we would consider our democracy and all the liberties that we get from living in America.”
Demonstrators also held rallies in New York and across Los Angeles, where immigration raids last year sparked protests, with thousands carrying signs outside City Hall.
In Washington, the federal government entered a partial shutdown at midnight Friday following Democratic anger over the violent immigration crackdown, which derailed talks over new funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
