{"id":197917,"date":"2026-01-24T01:45:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/thousands-rally-against-ice-in-minneapolis-amid-below-zero-temperatures-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:45:04","slug":"thousands-rally-against-ice-in-minneapolis-amid-below-zero-temperatures-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/thousands-rally-against-ice-in-minneapolis-amid-below-zero-temperatures-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands rally against ICE in Minneapolis amid below-zero temperatures – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Thousands of people rallied in subzero temperatures in a march against the federal government\u2019s immigration crackdown taking place in the city.
Organizers gave hand-warmers to demonstrators as they shouted “ICE out,” waved American flags and carried signs calling for the arrest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good <\/a>on Jan. 7.
\u201cToday is the coldest day of the entire year in Minnesota, and we have the biggest protest to date happening,\u201d said Amal Ahmed, 30, as she and others gathered downtown and marched toward the Target Center arena Friday afternoon.
Temperatures in Minneapolis were and will remain below zero degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, with a high of minus 9, a low of minus 17 and wind chill values as low as minus 35, according to the National Weather Service.
On Friday morning, video posted on social media showed thousands of people<\/a> gathered outside the Minneapolis airport, forming a picket line so long<\/a> it spanned the length of the terminal for departing flights. The morning action served as a precursor for a statewide \u201cICE Out\u201d day of protest<\/a> in the afternoon. Throughout the week, several groups including clergy, immigrant groups and labor unions exhorted residents to support the Friday protest and not shop nor attend school or work that day.
KARE, NBC\u2019s affiliate in Minneapolis, captured video<\/a> of airport demonstrators being zip-tied and loaded into yellow school buses by police officers. Organizers told KARE<\/a> that about 100 people were detained. Airport officials told KARE that law enforcement took action after the protesters’ \u201cpermitted activity went beyond the agreed-upon terms.\u201d
Some businesses across the Twin Cities were closed on Friday and some business owners previously told NBC News<\/a> they would be attending the rally.
Mati Hanson, 31, said she was protesting because she felt that she could as a white person. \u201cA lot of people aren\u2019t leaving their houses \u2026 Those are the people I want to support, since they can\u2019t be here,\u201d she said.
Yubi Hassan, 24, who immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia when he was a teenager, handed hot tea to protesters in The Commons.
His friend waved a sign from behind him that read “Free Somali tea.”
“We realized it\u2019s negative 20 degrees out today, and anybody would appreciate something warm,” said Hassan, who owns a local tea company. He said it was important to be out protesting, despite his fears.
“We have seen this happen before, right? It always starts with one group of people, until it spreads to everybody,” he said. “Today is us, tomorrow it might be somebody else.”
As the sun set in the Twin Cities, the demonstration moved as planned to a rally at the Target Center arena, where thousands again gathered. Banners that read “Stop kidnapping our neighbors” and “No more masked militia” were hung throughout the city-owned stadium. Several local activists and religious leaders addressed the crowd.
“Today, we are not gathering out of fear. We gathered out of love for our neighbors, for our children and for our future,” activist Imam Youssef Abdullah said. “When the violence escalated, we did not turn away. We showed up, we shared food, we marched together.”
The Trump administration has sent more than 3,000 federal immigration personnel to Minneapolis since December, in what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
Over the past six weeks, officers have apprehended more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a statement to NBC News on Thursday evening, a DHS spokesperson criticized Friday\u2019s protests saying, \u201cThe fact that those groups want to shut down Minnesota\u2019s economy, which provides law-abiding American citizens an honest living, to fight for illegal alien murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, drug dealers, and terrorists says everything you need to know.\u201d
Operation Metro Surge came after a YouTube video by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley alleging massive fraud at child care centers owned by Somali immigrants went viral. The video generated fierce and renewed attention on a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department into an alleged $250 million fraud scheme<\/a> in Minnesota. The scheme involved some members of Minnesota\u2019s Somali community.
At the protest on Friday, Abdi Hassan, 19, a Somali American who\u2019s been in the U.S. since he was 2 years old, said that in recent weeks he\u2019s had friends racially profiled by ICE. He takes his ID everywhere he goes, he said, \u201cor I might just be snatched up for no reason \u2026 it\u2019s been scary lately. It\u2019s terrifying.\u201d
The immigration operation has been fiercely criticized by some residents and local officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. This week, the Justice Department sent subpoenas <\/a>to Walz, Frey and other state leaders, escalating its investigation into whether they conspired to impede immigration operations.
Tensions have flared since the fatal shooting<\/a> of Good, an unarmed U.S. citizen, by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who federal officials have said was acting in self-defense<\/a>.
On Thursday, Homeland Security and FBI agents arrested three protesters in connection with a demonstration<\/a> that interrupted Sunday service at a church in St. Paul. That same day, news broke that four children had been apprehended by immigration authorities in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old boy<\/a>.
Images of the 5-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, were plastered to some of the protesters’ signs on Friday downtown. One read “Not bait.” Officials with Ramos’ school district accused federal authorities of using the boy as bait to arrest his parents, which DHS has denied, stating they <\/a>made \u201cmultiple attempts\u201d to get the boy’s mother to take custody of him, but she refused.
“It\u2019s super heartbreaking to know that even a 5-year-old can be placed in detention centers,” Ahmed said. Nobody is safe.”
Border Patrol and ICE officials said at a news conference on Friday that the father had fled on foot as they were trying to arrest him, and that he had left the boy. Officials have said the father and son have been reunited at the detention facility in Texas.
“To the federal government, look at this gathering here. I know you\u2019re watching,” Youssef Abdullah said. “Take good pictures. Your division did not work. You division failed. Your cruelty has been exposed.”
Matt Lavietes reported from Minneapolis and Nicole Acevedo from New York.<\/em>
Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC News.
Nicole Acevedo is a news reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeMINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Thousands of people rallied in subzero temperatures in a march against the federal government\u2019s immigration crackdown taking place in the city. Organizers gave hand-warmers to demonstrators as they shouted “ICE out,” waved American flags and carried signs calling for the arrest of the Immigration and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-197917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}