Thousands of protesters filled streets and campuses across the United States on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term with coordinated demonstrations against his administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Marches unfolded from Washington to smaller cities such as Asheville, North Carolina and across university campuses, fueled by public anger over aggressive enforcement tactics and the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, by an immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Videos circulating online showed crowds chanting slogans such as “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA,” while students in Cleveland shouted, “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.” In Santa Fe, New Mexico, high school students walked out of class to attend a “Stop ICE Terror” rally at the state capitol.
The Trump administration has argued it is acting on a clear voter mandate to deport millions of people living in the country illegally.
Yet recent polling suggests broad public disapproval of the use of force by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies, a gap underscored by the scale and geographic spread of the protests.
Organized by left-leaning groups including Indivisible and 50501, alongside labor unions and grassroots organizations, the demonstrations also targeted immigration detention facilities.
Protest leaders pointed to conditions at a detention center in El Paso, Texas, where federal authorities say three detainees have died in the past six weeks.
As rallies continued through the Midwest and East Coast, organizers said additional protests were planned for West Coast cities including San Francisco and Seattle later in the day.
In Minnesota, where tensions have been highest, street protests showed little sign of easing Wednesday as the conflict widened into the courts.
Federal prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas on Tuesday to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.
The subpoenas seek records related to whether state and local leaders obstructed or impeded federal immigration enforcement during a large-scale operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
A person familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the inquiry centers on whether public statements and actions by Minnesota officials violated a federal conspiracy statute.
The subpoenas arrived one day after the Justice Department urged a judge to dismiss Minnesota’s lawsuit aimed at halting the enforcement surge, calling the state’s legal challenge “legally frivolous.”
Ellison has argued that the federal operation violates constitutional protections, including free speech rights.
Walz, in a statement earlier this week, accused the administration of pursuing political distractions rather than justice.
Frey, whose office released one of the subpoenas, said the document demands included “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.”
“We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or silence local voices,” Frey said.
Vice President JD Vance is expected to travel to Minneapolis on Thursday for a roundtable discussion with local leaders and community members, according to sources familiar with the plans.
The visit had not yet been officially announced.
Federal officials defended the scope and intensity of the operation.
Greg Bovino, a U.S. Border Patrol official overseeing the crackdown, said more than 10,000 people living in the country illegally have been arrested in Minnesota over the past year, including 3,000 individuals he described as “some of the most dangerous offenders” during the past six weeks of what authorities call Operation Metro Surge.
Advocates questioned those claims. Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said there is no transparent way to verify arrest numbers or the government’s characterization of those taken into custody.
The flashpoint for the unrest remains the killing of Good on Jan. 7.
Authorities say she was shot by immigration officer Jonathan Ross in self-defense as she attempted to move her vehicle, which was blocking a Minneapolis street where ICE agents were operating.
Video recordings of the encounter, however, show her Honda Pilot slowly turning away from the officer at the moment shots were fired.
Since the shooting, confrontations between residents and federal officers have intensified.
Protesters have blown whistles, shouted insults and followed enforcement teams, while officers have responded with tear gas and chemical irritants.
Bystanders have posted videos showing agents using a battering ram to enter a home, smashing vehicle windows and pulling people from cars.
Bovino defended his officers, saying their actions were “legal, ethical and moral.”
The protests have also spilled into religious spaces. On Sunday, demonstrators entered a service at Cities Church in St. Paul, with some approaching the pulpit.
Church leaders condemned the action as unlawful.
“Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus, or any other act of worship, is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation,” the church said in a statement shared by Pastor Jonathan Parnell.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the demonstrators as “agitators” in a post on X and warned that arrests were imminent.
Local activist and attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong countered by calling for the resignation of a church pastor who also works at a local ICE office, arguing that holding both roles presents a “fundamental moral conflict.”
