People gather at an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rally in New York on Saturday. Phyoto by Kena Betancur/EPA
More than 300 protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement were held in cities across the country on Saturday.
The protests are in response to the deaths of two anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis in January and against the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
Protests started in Minneapolis on Friday, during which rock stars Bruce Springsteen and Tommy Morello performed free concerts, and continue through the weekend.
A rally was scheduled Saturday at 1 p.m. CST at Bryant Square Park in Minneapolis, and church bells rang at noon in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The Twin Cities march was organized in part by the Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee, which opposes all forms of immigration law enforcement, and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, which was formed following the death of Jamar Clark, 24, who was shot and killed by two Minneapolis Police Officers on Nov. 15, 2015.
Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both 37, were shot and killed while protesting ICE enforcement activities in January.
Pretti was armed when he engaged ICE officers on Jan. 24, but he did not draw his firearm and was shot and killed after a federal officer disarmed him and another yelled that he had a gun.
Two federal officers have been put on administrative leave while the matter is investigated.
Good was shot and killed on the morning of Jan. 7 after she used her vehicle to block ICE officers as they tried to free one or more stuck vehicles from the snow.
Video footage shows her wife, Rebecca Good, urging her to drive away when ICE officers tried to detain her, and one of them shot and killed her in self-defense as she drove toward him.
Homeland Security officials said Good struck the officer with her vehicle, and he suffered internal injuries that required medical care.
Nationally, the same organization that sponsored the national No Kings Protests on June 12 sponsored the “ICE Out of Everywhere National Day of Action,” The New York Times reported.
The 50501-sponsored protests were planned in every state and the nation’s capital.
The organization’s name stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement, and it is among groups that received $500 million in funding from organizations created by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, hedge-fund billionaire George Soros and the Arabella network, according to the New York Post.
While anti-ICE protests continued on Saturday, the president announced federal law enforcement will not respond to riots or protests until asked for support in cities run by Democrats.
“I have instructed Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, that under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat cities with regard to their protests and/or riots unless, and until, they ask us for help,” Trump said on Saturday in a Truth Social post
Instead, federal law enforcement will focus on protecting federal facilities that might be “attacked by these highly paid lunatics, agitators and insurrectionists,” he said.
“I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of federal government property,” Trump continued.
“There will be no spitting in the faces of our officers, there will be no punching or kicking the headlights of our cars, and there will be no rock or brick throwing at our vehicles or at our Patriot Warriors,” he said. “If there is, those people will suffer an equal or more consequence.”
He also said federal courthouses, buildings any anything else under federal protection will be protected, including by the military if necessary.
