As a demonstration of support for a mass economic blackout being organized by labor unions and community organizers this Friday in Minneapolis, activists in Orlando are organizing their own protest Friday evening at Orlando City Hall, in solidarity with the Minneapolis coalition’s demand to remove ICE from their state. Dozens of similar solidarity actions are being organized across the country.
“ICE is an agency built on fear, family separation, and state terror,” reads a statement from Socialist Alternative, a leftist group organizing the solidarity demonstration in Orlando. “When workers and communities in Minneapolis take a stand, people in Orlando are standing with them. An injury to one is an injury to all.”
According to Workday Magazine, a coalition of community organizers, labor unions and faith leaders in Minneapolis last week — galvanized by violence perpetrated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — announced plans for a day of “no work (except for emergency services), no school, and no shopping” Friday, Jan. 23.
The day of action, dubbed the “Day of Truth and Freedom,” has been likened to a strike, although organizers aren’t using that term themselves, in part to likely avoid legal challenges associated with the term.
“Our local understands that some workers and bargaining units are going to be prohibited by law from striking,” said Greg Nammacher, president of the Minneapolis-based labor union SEIU Local 26, speaking at a press conference Monday. “We are not telling workers to violate those rules and will respect workers’ individual choices on how they participate on the 23rd,” Nammacher said. “But let us be very, very clear: We as unions will do everything in our power to protect the rights of all workers.”
The labor-community coalition organizing Friday’s “Day of Truth and Freedom” in Minneapolis are collectively calling for the removal of ICE from the state of Minnesota. The call to action comes shortly after a mobilization of thousands of ICE agents to the Minneapolis area by the Trump administration and the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mom Renee Good by federal ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, 2026.
Good, a U.S. citizen acting as a legal observer, was shot multiple times by Ross as she attempted to drive away from ICE agents in her Honda Pilot, after another officer commanded Good to “get out of the f**king car.” Hundreds of Orlandoans rallied in protest of Good’s killing at Orlando City Hall earlier this month as part of a national weekend of protest actions and vigils.
“This rally is not the end — it’s a warning, it’s a promise, and we will not be quiet while queer migrants are detained, while our siblings are detained,” said Fidel “Fi” Gomez Jr., LGBTQ+ organizer for Hope CommUnity Center, speaking at the Jan. 11 rally in Orlando. “We will not be silent while our money is used to harm people. We will continue organizing, we will protect one another, and we will return again and again and again if we have to, because love makes us brave.”
Organizers are making good on that promise this Friday. The local rally, endorsed by Socialist Alternative Florida, Orlando 50501 and the Sunshine Movement, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Orlando City Hall, according to an event flyer circulating on social media.
Although state policy in Florida is more hostile to immigrants rights (and to local elected officials who are sympathetic to concerns about ICE) compared to Minnesota, Orlando remains one of the last Democratic-leaning areas in the ruby-red Sunshine State. It’s also a city where nearly one-quarter of the growing population is foreign-born.
Orlando’s also no stranger to anti-ICE protests: Orlandoans also took to the streets in 2018 to protest Trump’s immigration policies during his first term in the White House, standing in opposition to the separation of migrant children and their guardians.
Call to action
The labor-community coalition organizing Friday’s day of action in Minneapolis are collectively calling for ICE to depart from Minnesota, for the ICE agent who killed Renee Good to be held legally accountable for his actions, and for Congress to allocate no additional funding for ICE in the congressional budget. Organizers are also calling on Minnesota businesses to “cease economic relations” with ICE and refuse to allow ICE to use their property for “staging grounds.”
“Many employers, in many cases already, are partnering with their employees and closing down entirely, or making sure that workers that are going to be off [work] are going to be accommodated,” said Nammacher, the SEIU Local 26 president. “There is a way to do this together, with both businesses, unions and workers together, so that we can stand and really make a clear statement to the world, and most importantly to the ICE occupation of our communities, that we stand together,” he said.
Immigrants rights advocates in Orlando have similarly issued calls for the Orange County government to end its collaboration with ICE — a feat that’s more complicated in Florida due to state statutes that require local governments to comply with and assist federal immigration enforcement.
Rumors of new ICE detention facility potentially being built in Orlando, plus a reported uptick in recent ICE activity in Central Florida, have also prompted criticism and opposition from some elected officials.
“The idea of expanding ICE detention in Orlando comes at a moment when immigration enforcement has increasingly looked like vigilante-style policing: aggressive street actions, broken windows, people dragged from cars, and even U.S. citizens being detained in the chaos and killed,” said Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) in a Jan. 16 social media post.
“Orlando does not need an ICE detention facility,” she continued. “We need policies that keep families together, respect due process, and protect the economic and social fabric that makes our region thrive. I oppose any and all plans to open up an immigration detention center in our community and urge private and local decision-makers to reject any proposal to open up an ICE detention facility in Orlando.”
At least 32 people died in ICE custody last year, according to reporting from The Guardian, making 2025 the deadliest year for those detained by ICE over the last two decades.
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