Minnesota fights immigration enforcement one protest at a time in freezing temperatures | In Pics

Despite Arctic temperatures, several thousand protestors gathered in downtown Minneapolis to protest the US President Donald Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

These protests are part of a broader movement against Trump's increased immigration enforcement across the state.

Labour unions, progressive organizations and clergy have urged Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and even shops.

According to the Associated Press, about 100 clergy members demonstrated against immigration enforcement at Minnesota's largest airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, were arrested by the police.

The faith leaders had gathered at the airport to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to call for an end to the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The clergy were issued misdemeanour citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released, Jeff Lea, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman, told AP.

They were reportedly arrested because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupting airline operations, Lea said.

Police ordered them to leave, but Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said she and others decided to stay and be arrested to show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes.

She planned to go back to her church after her brief detention to hold a prayer vigil. “We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaard said.

“What’s happening here is clearly immoral,” Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne, who travelled from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to participate in the rally in downtown Minneapolis, said.

The Unitarian Universalist minister said, “It’s definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that’s dangerous to us is not the weather.”

Protesters have gathered daily in the Twin Cities since January 7, when 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Federal law enforcement officers have repeatedly squared off with community members and activists who track their movements.

Organisers said that more than 700 businesses statewide have closed in solidarity with the movement, from a bookstore in tiny Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

“We’re achieving something historic,” said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of the more than 100 participating groups.

A 2-year-old was reunited with her mother Friday, a day after she was detained with her father outside of their home in South Minneapolis, lawyer Irina Vaynerman told The Associated Press.

Vaynerman said they had quickly challenged the family’s detention in federal court. The petition states that the child, a citizen of Ecuador, was brought to the US as a newborn. The child and her father, Elvis Tipan Echeverria, both have a pending asylum application and neither are subject to final orders of removal.

Sam Nelson, a former student of the Minneapolis high school, said he skipped work so he could join the march. Federal agents detained someone at the schoolafter class earlier this month. That arrest led to altercations between federal officers and bystanders.

“It’s my community,” Nelson said. “Like everyone else, I don’t want ICE on our streets.”