Some Republican lawmakers have begun to break with the Trump administration over its “surges” in U.S. cities, targeting Minneapolis, Portland, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago since the summer.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R–North Carolina) both publicly called for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s ouster.
Murkowski wrote on social media: “The tragedy and chaos the country is witnessing in Minneapolis is shocking. ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.”
General strikes are infrequently organized in the U.S., because they’re difficult to coordinate, according to Bill Gould, a professor emeritus at Stanford Law. In 1934, 150,000 workers in San Francisco went on strike for four days after police shot into a crowd of picketing workers, killing three and injuring more than 100.
The following year, the National Labor Relations Act passed, guaranteeing private sector workers the right to unionize and creating the National Labor Relations Board.
Demonstrators fill Dolores Park in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026, during a nationwide day of action to protest immigration enforcement operations. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Gould said that such a protest on the national level, though, is relatively unprecedented. He said if it manages to draw wide involvement, Friday’s action could be “pioneering.”
“It is very unusual, and I think it reflects a sense of outrage that so many in the public feel about the behavior of ICE in dealing with what, for the most part, are peaceful protests,” he said. “The very violent and, as we can see, homicidal conduct of ICE in some circumstances — I think there is a general sense of outrage throughout the country about this.”
Gould said that the national shutdown aims to get the attention of the business community and political leaders.
Demonstrators fill Dolores Park in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026, during a nationwide day of action to protest immigration enforcement operations. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“If it affects business substantially, business, in turn, will turn to political leaders seeking to get those political leaders to reform what workers are grieving about,” Gould said.
Many Bay Area union chapters told KQED they weren’t formally organizing actions in line with Friday’s strike, but some members may be participating in an individual capacity.
The California Faculty Association, which represents educators at California State University campuses, wrote on social media: “We encourage all of our members to show support however and wherever they can. We must band together with Minnesota by forcefully condemning and putting an end to ICE’s reign of terror.”
Protestors hang from a traffic light near Dolores Park as part of the ICE Out rally in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. (Aryk Copley for KQED)
Troy Goode attended the Dolores Park protest with his middle-school-aged daughter.
“I’ll be honest, while I’m very supportive of the movement here, I probably wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for my daughter,” he told KQED. “I really appreciate all these kids who are helping active not only themselves for the first time politically but also helping activate some of us that might’ve needed an extra boost to get off the couch.”
Meanwhile, at least 70 local coffee shops, restaurants and businesses have shut their doors or vowed solidarity with the action, according to a growing list compiled by Mission Local.
“We are closed because, as a group and as a store, that feels like the clearest way to communicate our support with Minnesota and the way that we feel that we need to engage with the crisis that we’re all living through right now,” said Camden Emery, the co-owner and lead buyer for Booksmith bookstore in the Upper Haight neighborhood.
“So much of how we’re living right now is existing in a state where individual actors feel powerless against authoritarianism, against the state and to be able to show up in the street literally to see other people standing beside you is incredibly powerful,” he continued. “The function of the strike in that sense is to build solidarity, provide hope, provide more of a sense that we might find our way out of this thing.”
San Francisco-based Andytown Coffee Roasters confirmed on social media that several of its locations in the city and Menlo Park are closed.
“Andytown is immigrant-founded, we support our team’s First Amendment rights, and we only like ice when it is in our Snowy Plovers,” the company wrote on social media, referring to their signature iced-coffee drink.
Crowds march through San Francisco as part of the ICE Out rally in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2026. (Aryk Copley for KQED)
Some restaurants and stores that say they cannot afford to close, or have chosen to remain open because their employees need the work, said they’ll be donating proceeds to immigration nonprofits, and are offering free or discounted goods and gathering spaces to protestors.
Green Apple Books in the Richmond District said it would remain open and hand out whistles to people headed to the protest. The store said on social media that profits made on Friday would go to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
“We are keeping our doors open to serve as a place of engagement, whether that be solitary, meditative engagement with a book, or engaging with booksellers and fellow neighbors about our cultural moment and ICE violence in Minnesota and beyond,” the store wrote.
City Lights Bookstore in North Beach closed and urged people to protest.
“Hope to see you in the streets,” the store wrote on social media.
