Over 100 Priests Dragged Away Fighting ICE Agenda In Furious Protest As Tensions Reach Boiling Point

Arctic winds couldn't freeze the fury in Minneapolis on Friday, 23 January 2026. Roughly 100 clergy members were arrested at Minnesota's largest airport whilst thousands more flooded downtown streets, defying minus 12-degree temperatures to protest President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. The demonstrators weren't deterred by frostbite warnings—they were more concerned about a different kind of ice altogether.

Clergy Members Arrested At Airport As Operations Disrupted

Police detained approximately 100 clergy members demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, according to Trevor Cochlin of Faith in Minnesota, a progressive advocacy group.

The religious leaders were protesting the deportation of immigrants from the facility. Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Jeff Lea confirmed the arrests occurred outside the main terminal because protesters exceeded their permit boundaries and disrupted airline operations.

The Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne travelled from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to join the rally. 'What's happening here is clearly immoral,' the Unitarian Universalist minister said. 'It's definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that's dangerous to us is not the weather.'

Mass Mobilisation Shuts Down Over 700 Minnesota Businesses

Friday's demonstrations formed part of a coordinated movement against increased immigration enforcement across the state. Labour unions, progressive organisations and clergy urged Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and shops in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Organisers reported more than 700 businesses statewide closed in solidarity, from a bookshop in Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

'We're achieving something historic,' said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of more than 100 participating groups. Sam Nelson skipped work to join the mass protest, explaining he's a former student of the Minneapolis secondary school where federal agents detained someone after class earlier in January. 'It's my community,' Nelson said. 'Like everyone else, I don't want ICE on our streets.'

Detention Of Toddlers Sparks Federal Court Battle

A two-year-old named Chloe was detained with her father as they drove home from a grocery shop in South Minneapolis on Thursday, according to a GoFundMe page created by Minneapolis city council member Jason Chavez.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Border Patrol arrested Elvis Tipan Echeverria of Ecuador, and alleged the toddler's mother refused to take her, so she was reunited with her father at a federal detention facility.

A district judge granted an emergency injunction ordering Chloe's release into her lawyer's custody. The child, an Ecuadorian citizen brought to Minneapolis as a newborn, has a pending asylum application and is not subject to a final removal order.

Five-Year-Old Detained After Father 'Fled Scene', Officials Claim

DHS repeated its allegation Friday that Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias abandoned his five-year-old son Liam during his arrest in Columbia Heights on Tuesday. Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Liam was detained because his father 'fled from the scene'. The two are detained together at the Dilley Detention Centre in Texas, designed to hold families.

The family's lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said he believes the mother refused to open the door to ICE officers because she feared detention. Columbia Heights district superintendent Zena Stenvik said Liam was 'used as bait'. Prokosch found nothing in state records suggesting the father has a criminal history.

Daily Protests Follow Fatal Shooting by ICE Officer

Protesters have gathered daily in the Twin Cities since 7 January 2026, when Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Federal law enforcement officers have repeatedly confronted community members and activists tracking their movements.

On Thursday, a prominent civil rights lawyer and at least two others were arrested for their involvement in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Sunday service at a St Paul church. Black Lives Matter Grassroots expressed its 'gratitude' for those activists on Friday, stating that 'Grassroots organisers in the Twin Cities are putting their own bodies, freedom and livelihood on the line to secure community.'