Anti-ICE protesters assemble across the U.S. after shootings in Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon

Pro­test­ers against im­mi­gra­tion en­force­ment took to the streets in cities and towns across the coun­try on Sat­ur­day af­ter one fed­er­al of­fi­cer fa­tal­ly shot a woman in Min­neapo­lis and an­oth­er shot and wound­ed two peo­ple in Port­land, Ore­gon.

The demon­stra­tions come as the U.S. De­part­ment of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty push­es for­ward in the Twin Cities with what it calls its biggest-ever im­mi­gra­tion en­force­ment op­er­a­tion. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s ad­min­is­tra­tion has said both shoot­ings were acts of self-de­fence against dri­vers who “weaponized” their ve­hi­cles to at­tack of­fi­cers.

Steven Eu­banks, 51, said he felt com­pelled to get out of his com­fort zone and at­tend a Sat­ur­day protest in Durham, North Car­oli­na, be­cause of what he called the “hor­ri­fy­ing” killing in Min­neapo­lis.

“We can’t al­low it,” Eu­banks said. “We have to stand up.”

In­di­vis­i­ble, a so­cial move­ment or­ga­ni­za­tion that formed to re­sist the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion, said hun­dreds of protests were sched­uled in Texas, Kansas, New Mex­i­co, Ohio, Flori­da and oth­er states. Many were dubbed “ICE Out for Good” us­ing the acronym for the fed­er­al agency Im­mi­gra­tion and Cus­toms En­force­ment. In­di­vis­i­ble and its lo­cal chap­ters or­ga­nized protests in all 50 states last year.

In Min­neapo­lis, a coali­tion of mi­grant rights groups called for a demon­stra­tion at Pow­der­horn Park, a large green space about half a mile from the res­i­den­tial neigh­bour­hood where 37-year-old Re­nee Good was shot on Wednes­day. They said the ral­ly and march would cel­e­brate Good’s life and call for an “end to dead­ly ter­ror on our streets.”

Protests held in the neigh­bour­hood have so far been large­ly peace­ful, in con­trast to the vi­o­lence that hit Min­neapo­lis in the af­ter­math of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the air­port, some con­fronta­tions erupt­ed on Thurs­day and Fri­day be­tween small­er groups of pro­test­ers and of­fi­cers guard­ing the fed­er­al build­ing used as a base for the Twin Cities crack­down.

On Fri­day night, a protest out­side a Min­neapo­lis ho­tel that at­tract­ed about 1,000 peo­ple turned vi­o­lent as peo­ple threw ice, snow and rocks at of­fi­cers, Min­neapo­lis Po­lice Chief Bri­an O’Hara said dur­ing a news con­fer­ence Sat­ur­day. One of­fi­cer suf­fered mi­nor in­juries af­ter be­ing struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twen­ty-nine peo­ple were cit­ed and re­leased, he said.

Min­neapo­lis May­or Ja­cob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peace­ful, those who cause dam­age to prop­er­ty or put oth­ers in dan­ger will be ar­rest­ed.

Three con­gress­women from Min­neso­ta at­tempt­ed to tour the ICE fa­cil­i­ty in the Min­neapo­lis fed­er­al build­ing on Sat­ur­day morn­ing and were ini­tial­ly al­lowed to en­ter but then told they had to leave about 10 min­utes lat­er.

U.S, Reps. Il­han Omar, Kel­ly Mor­ri­son and Ang­ie Craig ac­cused ICE agents of ob­struct­ing mem­bers of Con­gress from ful­fill­ing their du­ty to over­see op­er­a­tions there.

“They do not care that they are vi­o­lat­ing fed­er­al law,” Craig said af­ter be­ing turned away.

The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has been surg­ing thou­sands of fed­er­al of­fi­cers to Min­neso­ta un­der a sweep­ing new crack­down tied in part to al­le­ga­tions of fraud in­volv­ing So­ma­li res­i­dents. More than 2,000 of­fi­cers were tak­ing part.

Some of­fi­cers moved in af­ter abrupt­ly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of an­oth­er op­er­a­tion that start­ed last month and was ex­pect­ed to last un­til Feb­ru­ary. —MIN­NEAPO­LIS (AP)

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Sto­ry by RE­BEC­CA SAN­TANA | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

As­so­ci­at­ed Press writer Allen Breed con­tributed to this re­port from Durham, North Car­oli­na.