Activists across the country are calling for complete shutdown of work, school and shopping today to protest mass deportations and violence by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The shutdown includes plans to rally and protest around the country. According to a website for the shutdown, seven protests are registered in Connecticut. The website lists times and locations for registered protests occurring in New Haven, New London, Norwalk and Guilford.
The protests and shutdown come in the wake of two high-profile killings by federal agents in Minnesota. Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot in her car on Jan. 7 as she attempted to drive away from a confrontation with ICE officers. Another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, died on Saturday, Jan. 24. Federal immigration agents restrained Pretti and shot him multiple times after he attempted to help a person who had fallen to the ground during a confrontation with the agents.
The Trump administration faced significant backlash for its comments following both deaths. Trump officials accused Good of attempting to drive her car into the federal agents and portrayed Pretti as an armed instigator in the days following their deaths. Both of these claims were contradicted by videos of the shootings, in which Good appears to attempt to drive away from the agents and Pretti, although he was carrying a legal firearm, only holds a phone and does not make any attempt to reach for his gun.
Pretti’s family released a statement saying they were “heartbroken but also very angry.”
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the statement said. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
Pretti’s death also sparked criticism of the Trump administration by Republican officials and the National Rifle Association. Since the initial days after the attack, Trump and his administration have softened their rhetoric towards the deaths and begun talking about deescalating the situation in Minnesota.
The nationwide shutdown today is coming a week after Minnesota held a general strike to protest ICE’s presence in the state. Hundreds of businesses shut down across the state in solidarity while thousands of people rallied in the streets amid subzero temperatures, according to the New York Times.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz praised citizens’ efforts in an op-ed he published in the Wall Street Journal.
“Minnesotans aren’t taking the bait. They are protesting—loudly and urgently, but also peacefully,” Walz wrote. “They are helping their neighbors cope with this violent, lawless assault on people of color throughout the state—walking children to school safely, preparing mutual-aid packages, and organizing to make sure these atrocities are well-documented so that those responsible can face justice.”
According to reporting from the Associated Press, there are three federal investigations currently looking into the shooting of Pretti: the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
“As President Trump said yesterday, the administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing.
The website for the national shutdown said the country was “shocked and outraged” by the violence of Trump’s deportation campaign.
“Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear,” the website stated. “It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!”