Thousands of demonstrators marched in Minneapolis and cities across the United States on Friday as part of a coordinated “National Shutdown” protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.
The nationwide action, which saw rallies in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C., urged Americans to avoid work, school, and shopping for the day under the slogan “no work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE.”
The protests were galvanized by the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which have sparked local outrage and drawn criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum. Earlier Friday, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death.
Organizers linked the demonstrations to a broader pattern of lethal force, also citing the September 2025 shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzales by an ICE agent.
In Minneapolis, protesters assembled on a frozen lake to form the letters “SOS,” while another group carried a large-scale replica of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution through the streets, framing the demands as a defense of constitutional rights.
