Protesters take to streets across US after shootings in Minneapolis and Portland
President Donald Trump’s administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defence.
Thousands of people have marched in Minneapolis to protest against the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer in the city and the shooting of two people in Portland, Oregon.
It came as Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.
The Minneapolis gathering was one of hundreds of protests planned in towns and cities across the US over the weekend.
It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officer.
“We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest on Saturday. “Ice is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable.”
On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said on Saturday.
One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, Mr O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he added.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz echoed the call for peaceful demonstrations.
“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Mr Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”
The demonstrations across the country come as the US Department of Homeland Security pushes forward in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul with what it calls its biggest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
Donald Trump’s administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defence against drivers who “weaponised” their vehicles to attack officers.
Connor Maloney said he came to the Minneapolis protest to show support for his community and out of frustration over the ongoing immigration enforcement action.
“Almost daily I see them harassing people,” he said. “It’s just sickening that it’s happening in our community around us.”
Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to get out of his comfort zone and attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, because of what he called Ms Good’s “horrifying” death.
“We can’t allow it,” Mr Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”
Indivisible, a social movement organisation that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states.
Many were dubbed “Ice Out for Good” using the acronym for the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Indivisible and its local chapters organised protests in all 50 states last year.
In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups called for a demonstration at Powderhorn Park, a large green space about half a mile from the residential neighbourhood where 37-year-old Ms Good was shot on Wednesday.
They said the rally and march would celebrate Ms Good’s life and call for an “end to deadly terror on our streets”.
A couple of miles from the park, just as the demonstration began, an Associated Press photographer witnessed heavily armed officers — at least one in Border Patrol uniform — approach a person who had been following them. Two of the agents had long guns out when they ordered the person to stop following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning”.
The agents eventually drove onto the interstate without detaining the driver.
Protests held in the neighbourhood have so far been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.
Mr O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case a dog was left in the vehicle.
He said immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that emergency callers have been alerting authorities to Ice activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.
Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the Ice facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.
US representatives Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused Ice agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.
“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Ms Craig said after being turned away.
The Trump administration has been surging thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.
Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.
