© The Minnesota Star Tribune/X Citizens are urging the national migration agency to leave the municipality.
Despite the frigid weather, with temperatures substantially below zero, thousands of demonstrators convened in Minneapolis to rally against the federal government’s stringent immigration regulations, according to NBC News.
Large groups of demonstrators assembled outside the Minneapolis airport in the early morning, creating a picket line that extended the entire length of the departures area. Those present intoned “
BREAKING: It's -14 degrees outside and thousands of protesters are outside the Minneapolis St Paul airport protesting against ICE and Trump. This is America! pic.twitter.com/0gJOagOEl5 — Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 23, 2026
This is a cruel disgrace. ICE agents in Minneapolis chase, tackle, and handcuff a child in the freezing cold and snow while he yells “I'm legal! I'm legal!” How does this make us safer? How does this target “the worst of the worst?” Horrifying and shameful. pic.twitter.com/PDHr6m82Oy
— Steve Simon (@MNSteveSimon) January 23, 2026
BREAKING: Over 100 priests arrested in Minneapolis for protesting ICE in Minnesota where today it's -21 degrees outside MSP Airport.
The clergy gathered in prayerful solidarity to demand airlines — especially @Delta and Signature Aviation — cease contracting deportation flights… pic.twitter.com/oftgMoDfyY
— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) January 23, 2026
Minnesotans, led by singing clergy, are marching outside Minneapolis–St. Paul airport tonight.
Not even negative 15° can freeze solidarity.
ICE out. ✊ pic.twitter.com/mWP362V0EE
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) January 23, 2026
Over 100 priests have been arrested in Minneapolis for protesting ICE.
They gathered to demand that airlines stop contracting deportation flights with DHS. pic.twitter.com/ttkMOrvDvN
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 23, 2026
It is currently -16 in Minneapolis.
Trump hates the fact that thousands of people are protesting him in -16° weather.
Keep it up everyone. You're making a difference.
pic.twitter.com/2ULBq0j7fV
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 23, 2026
TODAY: Hundreds of thousands in Minnesota braved -10°F weather to march through downtown Minneapolis as part of the statewide general strike demanding ICE out of the Twin Cities. pic.twitter.com/LkvkxFztJI
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 23, 2026
The Trump government has sent in excess of 3,000 federal immigration officers to Minneapolis since December as part of Operation Metro Surge. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, over 3,000 undocumented immigrants have been detained in the past six weeks.
In an announcement to NBC News, a department representative strongly denounced the demonstrations, asserting that the participants were allegedly “endeavoring to paralyze Minnesota’s economy to shield unlawful immigrants – murderers, rapists, gang affiliates, pedophiles, drug purveyors, and terrorists.”
Operation Metro Surge commenced following the circulation of a video by far-right blogger Nick Shirley, alleging an extensive fraudulence scheme at Minnesota child care facilities, supposedly owned by Somali immigrants. The video has reignited a longstanding Justice Department inquiry into a potential $250 million fraudulent operation involving members of the state’s Somali community.
The initiative has encountered substantial criticism from certain state inhabitants, civic groups, and local figures, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The Justice Department served them with subpoenas this week, examining whether they obstructed immigration activities.
Tensions have escalated in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of Renee Nicole Goode, an unarmed U.S. national, by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, which federal authorities have characterized as self-defense.
On Thursday, agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI apprehended three protesters following a disruption during a Sunday service at a church in St. Paul. On the same day, reports surfaced that immigration authorities had detained four children in recent weeks, including 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos.
Video obtained by CBS News shows the moment ICE agents took 5-year-old Liam Ramos in Minneapolis. The boy was taken with his father while in their driveway after just arriving home from his preschool classroom.
School officials say the child was used as bait to knock on the… pic.twitter.com/BdyqG2t6Ni
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 23, 2026
Images of him have emerged on protesters’ placards emblazoned with the slogan “not bait.” Educational district officials have accused federal agents of employing the child as a decoy to apprehend the parents. The Department of Homeland Security refutes these claims, maintaining it “repeatedly attempted to entrust the boy to his mother,” but she demurred.
Border Patrol and ICE indicated that the boy’s father absconded during an attempted arrest, leaving the child unattended. They later communicated that the father and son were reunited at a detention facility in Texas.