Many I.C.E. critics believe that the recent raids around the nation have very little to do with illegal immigration and have more to do with racism.
Throughout American history, civil rights activists have used financial boycotts to make societal change.
Public transportation in Montgomery, Ala. did not integrate because it was the moral thing to do.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott cut drastically into their pockets, giving them no other choice.
Now, rapper/actor Vic Mensa is encouraging a nationwide strike in response to I.C.E. raids and killings in Minneapolis.
Haniyah Philogene of The Grio reported, “Vic Mensa is on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota, joining communities as they protest ICE’s growing presence in the Twin Cities. The actor and rapper took to his Instagram to share what he’s seeing on the ground and share a poignant call to action.”
Mensa said, “I’m here at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where ICE is stationed, people are being abducted, detained, and sent out of here, subverting due process, judicial process. They sent in the National Guard. The National Guard is basically running cover for ICE, and also playing both sides, pacifying people with donuts and coffee.”
He added, “Man, Minneapolis brought out 100,000 people for a general strike on Friday, and the only tool we really have to fight back against ICE terror is to expand and extend that general strike to a nationwide general strike. This Friday, no work, cut it all off.”
Many American citizens, commentators and activists have ridiculed many corporations and their C.E.O.’s for cozying up to President Donald Trump and his administration to avoid his ire and curry favor with the leader of the free world.
However, many of those critics believe that President Trump’s policies are detrimental to the regular working-class citizen.
As a result, people like Mensa believe that striking on Friday would show C.E.O.’s how important their employees or customers are to their bottom line.
Led by Pastor Jamal Bryant, many Africans-Americans began boycotting Minneapolis-based corporation Target because they got rid of their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs to please Trump.
Now, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have raised the stakes for those who disagree with Trump’s agenda.
Prior to Pretti’s death, hundreds of businesses shut down and thousands participated in the “ICE Out.”
Because of Pretti’s death, the momentum from the “ICE Out” movement has begun to spread to other cities.
In a social media caption, Mensa asked, “Are you participating in the strike against ICE [on] Friday? nationwide. no work. no school. no shopping. shut it down.”
The star of the television drama “The Chi” even visited Pretti’s memorial to pay respect to him and others killed by I.C.E.
While visiting the memorial, Mensa posted, “We’re out here at the memorial for Alex Pretti, at the site where he was executed by ICE just ten days after Renee Good was killed. 24 hours after the largest protests in the last 80 years. Clearly, a very emotional moment and an act of deliberate intimidation by the state. ICE being the weaponized arm of state terrorism. I mean, this is a very revolutionary city; it has been an epicenter of global shifts in the last five years. So in the memory of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and so many others, we out here.”
RegalMag.com covered the death of Castile and the murder of Floyd, extensively.
Their deaths, at the hands of police officers, helped intensify the Black Lives Matter movement.
Around 2020, many people from around the world rallied behind the mantra of Black Lives Matter after police officers killed countless Black people after normal interactions.
Like Floyd, many of the deceased were unarmed.
Nevertheless, some officers were able to successfully say they feared for their lives, despite some of the dead not having weapons or legally carrying weapons, if they did in fact have them on their person.
However, several officers received jail time in the murder of Floyd.
Six years later, the same energy is bubbling in Minneapolis after two White people were killed on camera by law enforcement officials.
The website for the National Shutdown campaign said, “Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear. It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough.”
The National Shutdown campaign calls for no work, no school and no shopping on Jan. 30.
The organizers of the campaign are also encouraging people to “stop funding ICE” and “ICE out everywhere.”
Democrats have taken the shutdown seriously, threatening a partial government shutdown over I.C.E. funding.
In a statement, Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”
Phenix S. Halley of The Root reported, “The shutdown campaign declared the killings of Pretti, Good, Silverio Villegas Gonzales in a Chicago suburb and Keith Porter Jr. on New Years Eve all by federal agents as beyond unacceptable. ‘While Trump and other right wing politicians are slandering them as terrorists, the video evidence makes it clear beyond all doubt,’ the organizers wrote on the website. ‘They were gunned down in broad daylight simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest mass deportation.’”
