Postal workers in Minneapolis joined a widening protest movement on January 18, marching through neighborhoods to demand that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) withdraw its agents from Minnesota. Carrying signs reading "ICE out of Minnesota" and "Justice for Good," the workers called for an end to federal enforcement actions they say threaten their customers and the integrity of delivery routes.
Protesters chanted for ICE to "get out" and for the protection of postal routes, saying the presence of federal agents hampers everyday services and intimidates residents. "I have seen ICE agents on my delivery route," said Susan Becker, a postal worker who described customers reporting attempts by agents to force entry into apartment buildings and alleging assaults on community members whom she called "good people."
The demonstrations follow a January 7 incident in which ICE agents, conducting an operation to arrest undocumented migrants in Minneapolis, shot and killed a 37-year-old American woman, Rayne Nicole Good. The killing intensified local anger and has prompted sustained street protests, clashes with police, and national scrutiny of ICE tactics and oversight.
That postal workers — a traditionally nonpartisan, federally linked workforce — have taken to the streets marks a notable alignment between labor and immigrant-rights activists. Postal routes traverse the city daily and workers' complaints about encountering federal agents translate community anxieties into a workplace safety and service-disruption frame that broadens the political stakes beyond immigrant communities alone.
Minneapolis remains a fraught political environment for policing and federal enforcement after the wider upheaval following George Floyd's death in 2020. The Good shooting pits local calls for accountability and limits on aggressive enforcement against the federal government's mandate to carry out immigration laws, raising questions about local-federal coordination, the use of force in operations, and protections for residents and essential workers.
What happens next will shape both local governance and national debates over immigration enforcement. Investigations and political pressure could force changes in ICE procedures or prompt federal authorities to defend their tactics more vigorously; either outcome could affect how and where enforcement operations are conducted around the country. For Minneapolis, the involvement of organized labor adds momentum to protesters' demands and increases the political cost of continued confrontations between federal agents and local communities.