Minneapolis-St. Paul, 24 Jan. - (ANA) - Thousands of protesters shut down streets throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul to demand that federal immigration agents end their weekslong crackdown. Businesses closed in solidarity.

 

Scores of businesses shut their doors and workers went outside in extremely cold weather to protest Trump’s deployment of ICE troops in Minneapolis. Vice President JD Vance defended ICE’s actions, saying “far-left agitators” and uncooperative local officials are to blame for demonstrations in the city. A U.S. appeals court lifted a lower court’s order that restrained federal officers from arresting or tear-gassing peaceful protesters.

 

Some Republicans worry that the ICE deployments could turn voters off in November’s congressional midterm elections, while Democrats are concerned that calls in their party for ICE’s abolition could hurt their chances among voters who are concerned about immigration and border security.

 

 

 

 

The detention this week of a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota animated protesters in New York City, who faced freezing temperatures.

 

Thousands of people withstood freezing temperatures and high winds in New York City on Friday to protest the ongoing crackdowns by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around the country, including the detention of a 5-year-old boy near Minneapolis this week. The gathering, which began with a demonstration in Union Square in Manhattan, continued with an evening march through the streets.

 

“I mean, it’s all so gut-punching,” said Gina Cirrito, 47, a co-founder of an organization that supports asylum-seeking families. “But the photo of that little boy in his Spider-Man backpack and little bunny hat — it just, it really hit really deep. My heart broke.”

 

Ms. Cirrito was walking on 14th Street just after sunset, part of a crowd of protesters that stretched from curb to curb for four blocks. She held a cardboard sign that read “Sweet Liam, we’re so sorry.”

 

Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy, was photographed as immigration agents detained him and his father in a suburb of Minneapolis on Tuesday.

 

In the last year, according to a New York Times analysis, the Trump administration has arrested and deported about 230,000 people from inside the country and a further 270,000 at the border, as the number of people trying to cross the Southwest border fell to record lows. President Trump has deployed thousands of ICE agents to cities and states led by Democrats in what he has described as an effort to crack down on crime and illegal immigration, and which critics have called unnecessary and inflammatory instigations to violence.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/24 January 2026 - - -