MINNEAPOLIS: Despite the bitter cold, thousands of people gathered in downtown Minneapolis to oppose the Trump administration’s crackdown, and police detained around 100 clergy members who were protesting against immigration enforcement at Minnesota’s biggest airport on Friday.
The demonstrations are a part of a larger movement against President Donald Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement throughout the state, with clergy, labor unions, and progressive groups advising Minnesotans to avoid their jobs, schools, and even stores. The religious leaders assembled at the airport to oppose deportation flights and demand that airlines halt what the Department of Homeland Security has described as its biggest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
According to Jeff Lea, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, the clerics were released after receiving minor tickets for trespassing and disobeying a peace officer. According to him, they were detained outside the main terminal of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for disrupting airline operations and going beyond the scope of their demonstration authorization.
In order to show support for migrants, especially members of her congregation who are terrified to leave their homes, Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said that despite police orders to leave, she and others chose to remain and be detained. After her brief detention, she intended to return to her church to conduct a prayer vigil.
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