Hundreds of businesses across the Twin Cities were closed Friday as tens of thousands of Minnesotans braved sub-zero temperatures to protest the federal immigration crackdown that has roiled their state. The daylong economic blackout was organized by local faith, labor and community groups, who called on residents to abstain from work, school and shopping. Billed as “A Day of Truth and Freedom,” it culminated with a massive march through downtown Minneapolis to a rally at Target Center, where the crowd demanded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents leave Minnesota. St. Paulite Janet Worden, a retired 3M employee who made the mile-long trek to Target Center from Commons Park with her husband, said immigration officers raided a house just down the block from their East Side home around Thanksgiving. “It’s very personal,” she said. “These are my neighbors, these are my friends. I can’t stand by and watch (ICE) do what they’re doing.” At least a dozen smaller protests and prayer vigils were held around the metro, and organizers said more than 700 businesses closed for the day, including dozens in greater Minnesota. “We’re seeing a lot more participation than I think we expected,” said Lisa Erbes, co-leader of Indivisible Twin Cities. “It really has been amazing to see how many businesses — small businesses, medium-sized businesses — are joining us. It shows you how people all across the Twin Cities and the state feel about this.” The shutdown got a little help from the frigid weather, which prompted many Twin Cities school districts to cancel classes and forced St. Paul’s Winter Carnival to postpone its outdoor kick-off event. Clergy arrested at MSP Airport Temperatures hovered around minus 12 as hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport about 10 a.m. to protest its use as a hub for flights of ICE detainees out of the state, and to highlight the cases of airport employees who have been arrested or deported by the agency. Karsten Nelson, left, a pastor with Redeemer Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, prays with other clergy as they and community leaders gather at Terminal 1 of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to protest the airport being used as deportation hub for federal immigration enforcement on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Among the protesters was Jamie, a White Bear Lake music teacher who declined to give his last name. He said several students in his district have been deported since ICE activity intensified here in December, and many of their classmates are now afraid to go to school. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “It’s really hard to focus on music when kids are being deported. … I have to be out here.” Following an hourlong rally in front of Terminal 1, dozens of clergy members wearing their vestments draped over heavy parkas knelt on the roadway to be arrested by police. Protesters shouted their support for the clergy as they were zip-cuffed and loaded onto a pair of waiting school buses. Jared Webster-Johnson, a priest and rector at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in St. Paul is led away after being arrested during a protest at Terminal 1 of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport against the airport being used as deportation hub for federal immigration enforcement on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) The Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in St. Paul, who was among those arrested, said Christians and Jews are called by scripture to “welcome the stranger.” “I think what we’re seeing stands directly against the core tenets of our faith — the dignity of every human being, loving our neighbors,” he said. “Jesus himself was a migrant who fled for his life.” The Rev. Leslie Moughty of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Brainerd, Minn., said clergy from all over the state and country traveled to the Twin Cities for Friday’s events. “We’re witnessing evil and witnessing sin,” she said. “The most vulnerable are being victimized. It’s important to keep showing up.” Hundreds of clergy and community leaders gathered at Terminal 1 of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to protest MSP being used as deportation hub on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Trevor Cochlin, of Faith in Minnesota, one of the groups organizing the airport protest, said “roughly 100 clergy” were arrested. Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Jeff Lea said the protesters were arrested outside the main terminal when they went beyond the stipulations of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations. March to Target Center The cold curtailed what was initially planned as a two-mile march through downtown Minneapolis that would begin and end at Commons Park, with speakers addressing the crowd outdoors. Instead, demonstrators bundled up in parkas and snowsuits left the park about 2 p.m. for Target Center, with marchers stretching more than a dozen blocks through the heart of downtown. ICE Out protestors march along Hennepin Ave. in downtown Minneapolis Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. The march would stop at the Target Center for a rally. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Julien Munezero, a nonprofit worker whose family immigrated to Minnesota from Congo when he was a child, said he wants to make sure the same opportunities he has enjoyed are available to future generations of immigrants. “We immigrated here because we were refugees,” he said during the march. “We got that chance. Other people are losing the chance that we were given, and that’s not fair. I want anyone who feels unsafe in their country to feel welcome here.” Several marchers said it lifted their spirits just to be out among other Minnesotans who shared their outrage over ICE’s presence in the state. “It’s therapeutic,” Worden said. “Otherwise I’m just crying at the TV, crying when I’m scrolling through the internet. I needed this.” As the march approached Target Center, representatives of the Somali American Leadership Table handed out 5,000 sambusas donated by vendors at Karmel Mall. “We wanted to make sure in this cold weather that they got some hot food while they were protesting for their community,” Khalid Omar said. Thousand attends the ICE OUT of Minnesota rally in the Target Center in Minneapolis on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Inside the arena, the rally opened with local Native American activist Vincent Dionne singing the anthem of the American Indian Movement, which was founded in Minneapolis in 1968. Comedian Lizz Winstead, a Minnesota native and co-creator of The Daily Show, emceed as more than a dozen labor, faith and community figures spoke during the hourlong rally. Melissa Silva Diaz, whose family has owned and operated El Burrito Mercado on St. Paul’s West Side for three generations, told the crowd that ICE activity in the Twin Cities has created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the community. “Raids and chaos in our streets are not only targeting the so-called criminals,” she said through tears. “It’s tormenting my family, my community, our staff, and keeping our customers away.” Day of Truth and Freedom The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have deployed more than 3,000 agents to Minnesota, where their tactics have been condemned by local political leaders, including St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. Protests against the crackdown escalated in the wake of the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. People protest against Federal immigration agents on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis) Organizers of the Day of Truth and Freedom issued a list of four demands ahead of Friday’s protest: that ICE leave Minnesota, that Ross be “held legally accountable” for Good’s killing, that Congress halt funding for ICE and investigate the agency, and that businesses “cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging grounds.” St. Paul city council member Nelsie Yang, who represents the city’s East Side, endorsed the shutdown Thursday during a news conference of Asian community members and business owners at Ha Tien Supermarket. Yang said federal agents have targeted Asian, Somali and Latino residents regardless of citizenship status, pointing to the arrest of a Hmong American man last week. ICE officers marched ChongLy “Saly” Scott Thao out of his St. Paul home wearing boxer shorts and a blanket. “ICE agents and this authoritarian Trump regime have wreaked havoc in our cities over and over,” Yang said. “They have used dehumanizing tactics, racial profiling, intimidation, and lawlessness in our cities, and we need them out.” Erbes said organizers hope the shutdown helps keep the national spotlight on Minnesota and ICE activities in the state. “We want all Americans to understand what’s happening here and join us in solidarity against what we see as illegal behavior by ICE,” Erbes said. “We need people to see first-hand just how bad it is.” This story contains information from the Associated Press.