Community groups around Connecticut are urging businesses and institutions to take part in a general strike Friday, part of a “National Shutdown” to oppose large-scale immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota and other parts of the country.
Organizers described the shutdown as a “nationwide day of no school, no work and no shopping” to protest the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s deployments and call on Congress to cut the federal funding that supports them. Hundreds of organizations have signed on in support of the protest, including several in Connecticut.
Hundreds of Minnesota businesses, museums, schools, restaurants and shops shuttered for the day on Jan. 23 as tens of thousands of residents marched in downtown Minneapolis in opposition to the increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Twin Cities area. The protest followed the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
On Saturday, the day after Minnesota’s general strike, Customs and Border Protection agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who worked as an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital. Homeland Security agents have injured and killed several people during deployments in U.S. cities in recent months, including in Chicago and Los Angeles.
“The historic General Strike in Minneapolis showed them our power. This Friday we must answer the call from those on the front line in Minneapolis and expand the strike,” a representative with Indivisible Southeast Connecticut, an organization taking part the strike, said in an emailed statement.
“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country — to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN,” the National Shutdown website reads.
Representatives for DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear how many businesses in Connecticut are planning to close their doors this Friday in support of the shutdown.
But several Connecticut-based organizations have signed on to “endorse” the strike, including New London Immigrant Defense, Workers’ Voice Connecticut, Hearing Youth Voices, Connecticut Democratic Socialists, CT Nurses United and ACT UP Connecticut according to a post on the Instagram page of New London Immigrant Defense.
Demonstrations are also planned in towns and cities across the state.
In New Haven, an “Ice Out!” protest will take place at 1 p.m. on the New Haven Green. In Stamford, protestors plan to gather at 4 p.m. off Exit 14 on the Merritt Parkway, on the overpass between Darien and New Canaan.
Members of AFT’s Connecticut chapter — a union that represents health care workers, educators and public service workers — will be in New London, where organizers with Indivisible Southeast Connecticut are holding a candlelight vigil and protest at the “whale tail” sculpture on State Street at 5 p.m.
Sherri Dayton, a nurse practitioner in Plantsville, said she plans to attend. Dayton said Pretti’s death hit home for her, and for many other nurses, because what Pretti did in his final moments went “to the core of what nurses do” — that is, they come to people’s aid. According to video footage of Pretti’s death, just before he was surrounded by CBP agents, he stepped between an agent and a female protestor the agent had shoved to the ground.
The demonstrations in Connecticut will continue on Saturday, with a vigil for Pretti “and all impacted by the violence of ICE” on the north steps of the state Capitol at noon, according to an Instagram post by Connecticut Nurses United. The group will be joined by AFT Connecticut, Connecticut Working Families and several other organizations.
John Brady, a registered nurse and the executive vice president of AFT Connecticut, said Pretti’s death hit him hard.
“The work of nurses doesn’t end when they leave” the workplace, Brady said.
He said AFT is dedicated to caring for neighbors and for the public at large, which is why it is important for nurses to participate in these events.
