One of the largest labor unions in the US is pushing to expand Friday’s economic blackout over the surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
Organizers are urging Minnesotans not to work, shop or go to school tomorrow, as part of demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the region, and the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. They are now planning actions beyond the state, and nationwide.
There are planned actions in cities across the US – from Orlando, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix, Arizona, to Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City – in solidarity with the people of Minnesota.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents nearly 2 million service and healthcare workers across the US, is leading calls for nationwide participation.
“Martin Luther King wrote to Cesar Chavez during the Great Boycott and said our separate struggles are really one struggle,” David Huerta, president of SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW) and SEIU California, said on Sunday on Politics Nation with the Rev Al Sharpton on MS Now. “Right now, more than any time ever, we see our civil rights, workers’ rights, and immigrants’ rights [...] in alignment with one another.” .
He added: “When we look at Minneapolis – the violence, the cruelty that’s being brought by this federal government against working people – it is now more than ever that we have to stand together, regardless of our differences.”
Jim Badger-Aguilar, a public employee at the Massachusetts Commission for the blind, and SEIU Local 509 member, is due to take part in a blackout event in Boston on Friday. “The behavior of ICE has gone well beyond, I think, what even some of the worst expectations many of us had of what would happen with this ramped-up racist, anti immigrant policies of the Trump administration,” he said.
“I’ve been blind since birth, and I work for a blindness agency in Massachusetts. I’m a public sector worker,” added Badger-Aguilar. “The billions and billions of dollars that are going to ICE are at the cost of public services and of services for people with disabilities, people who are homeless, people who are poor, other working people, and the people who work alongside us, who serve some of the most vulnerable communities – in Massachusetts, and around the country.”
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, described the ICE operations in Minnesota as a “crisis” for thousands of workers, due to the risks they face of being targeted while trying to go to work to put food on the table for their families.
“This is a crisis for all of our workers,” she said. “This is a crisis for our local economy, and we’re doing everything we can with our employers to keep our workplaces safe. Our communities and our democracy is under attack when you can’t even have the freedom to move to go to work.
“We’re just encouraging everybody in Minnesota, and I understand now it’s gotten national and international traction, to stand in solidarity on the 23rd that what is happening here is unconstitutional and is dangerous.”
She pushed back against claims from Trump officials that ICE was targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
“We are working directly with families who have been picked up, kidnapped, abducted, arrested, whatever you want to call it, who have absolutely every right to be in this country. They have working papers,” added Glaubitz Gabiou. “We have one union member who was arrested, released, and then rearrested again, even though they had already been cleared that they were legal to be here and legal being in this country, and legal to work.
“There is no rhyme or reason besides racial profiling for how people are being picked up in this community.”
The executive board of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s federation of more than 1,000 affiliated local unions, voted on 20 January to endorse the day of action. Dozens of labor unions in Minnesota have also endorsed the day of action.
Faith leaders said on Tuesday that dozens of places of worship in Minnesota will participate in the day of action.
“I stand before you with so many clergy, not just here, but across this great state, who are calling for ICE to leave,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, a minister and co-executive director of the multi-faith non-profit Isaiah, in a press conference with several congregation leaders across different religions. “On Friday, we are asking every single faith community to open your doors for people to have lament, to have prayer, to take moral and faithful action together, to take time to reflect on what is going on because it is absolutely not normal, and to call on our folks all around us.”
Dozens of local small businesses in the Minneapolis area, from bars to restaurants and bakeries, have announced plans to close.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said: “This is beyond insane. Why would these labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their communities?”
They also provided 23 uncaptioned photos of “criminals” they accused labor unions of “trying to protect” by staging the blackout.
Under the Trump administration, thousands of people targeted by ICE have no criminal record, and numerous US citizens have also been detained. In 2025, Trump also issued more than 1,500 pardons of individuals convicted of crimes, including US Capitol insurrectionists and wealthy campaign donors.
