This story was first published at Colorado Newsline
DENVER | Businesses across the Front Range are closing Friday or promising donations to immigrant advocacy groups amid calls for a national shutdown and strike to protest escalating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minnesota.
Border Patrol agents Saturday shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis just two weeks after ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. The killings have sparked nationwide outrage, while Trump’s top advisers rushed to spread false information about Pretti and Good, both of whom the administration smeared as “domestic terrorists” hours after they were killed.
Colorado Democrats in Congress this week called for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem to resign following Pretti’s death.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent was involved in a shooting near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona Tuesday. An off-duty ICE agent shot and killed Keith Porter on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. More than 50 people have died while in ICE or CBP custody under Noem, according to Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. The immigration enforcement operations are part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Ascent Studio, a rock climbing gym in Fort Collins, will close Friday and pay all of its employees for their scheduled shifts. The gym was holding a youth climbing competition when news of Pretti’s death broke Saturday, Brandon McPhail, co-founder and operations manager of Ascent Studio, said.
Parents had to balance supporting their kids in the competition while managing their own feelings after seeing the news, McPhail said.
“We’re … hosting this community event around kids who are looking to adults for the kind of support and encouragement that feels really incompatible with that world outside our little bubble,” McPhail said.
Determining how to respond quickly became a topic among the team at Ascent Studio, and McPhail and his co-owners thought their staff and customers would support the gym closing for the national shutdown. The response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive, McPhail said.
“I’m encouraged that that support is out there for actually taking some sort of stand,” McPhail said. “The state-sanctioned violence you see in Minnesota is not that far away. It’s figuratively and literally close to home for many people in our community. Those were the thoughts and thinking that led up to it.”
Organizers of the national shutdown expect participation across the country. They’re calling for “no school, no work, and no shopping.” Many businesses in the Denver metro area are closing and encouraging patrons on social media to participate in protests and donate to immigrant rights groups.
Participating restaurants in Denver include Vietnamese restaurant Sap Sua, Outside Pizza, Jade Cafe and Hudson Hill. Coffee shops closing include Hooked on Colfax and Good Bones in Denver and January Coffee in Boulder. The Weathervane Cafe in Denver will close Friday, but will offer free coffee outside from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. It will donate $1 from every sale made throughout the weekend to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
Book stores including Spell Books in Littleton and Petals and Pages in Denver will be closed. Trident Booksellers and Cafe in Boulder is closing and will offer free coffee and tea outside, and plans to donate to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and Casa de Paz, a nonprofit that provides welcoming and support services for people released from an ICE detention center in Aurora.
Friend Assembly, a ceramics studio in the Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, will also close.
The Campus Climbing and Training in Boulder will close, and Whetstone Climbing in Fort Collins will remain open but will donate $1,000 to an appropriate organization.
McPhail hopes the shutdown will bring attention to what’s happening in Minnesota and around the country, and that people will do what’s best for them with the day — that could include decompressing, attending a protest or demonstration, or calling elected officials.
Other businesses that plan to stay open will donate funds to immigrant advocacy groups.
Roostercat Coffeehouse in Denver will be open and offering free coffee to people making protest signs in the coffee shop. It will also make donations to local organizations supporting immigrant rights.
The Spicy Librarian book store will donate 5% of its profits on Friday to the Colorado Rapid Response Network.
Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood will remain open but will donate 20% of all sales made Friday to the Immigrant Freedom Fund, which pays bonds for people detained at the Aurora ICE facility. The brewery will also have a sign-making station.
Champagne Tiger, a French American diner in Denver, will remain open to offer free hot coffee to anyone protesting. It will also donate 20% of its sales to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
Politics and business don’t mix. You might as well poke yourself in the eye with a sharp stick in solidarity with Minneapolis protesters.
It’s called living your values. Might want to try it sometime.
Good luck with your business. You might try closing for a year if you want to be really genuine about “living your values.” Anybody can close for one day. Let’s get serious here! Make a real statement!
A leftist appealing to principle will never not be hilarious.
What the hell is going on in this country? Today, I read about Native Americans making sure that they carry a tribal ID with them at all times. The Native actress that played Marilyn on Northern Exposure was stopped by ICE. What country are you going to deport her to? Don Lemon was arrested and charges are pending for covering the church protest in Minneapolis as a journalist! Where is the investigation on ICE agents for killing protesters? Geez, it gives me flashbacks to Kent State in Ohio in the 60s, where 4 were killed! I can’t wait until I can cast my ballot in November, so I can wash out as many Republicans as my vote will allow me to do. The GOP is complicit through their collective silence!
Regarding the arrest of Don Lemon as referred to by Mikey – that is a tough one that will have to be worked through in the courts. It is a case where one group’s rights conflict with another’s. One analogy used against Mr. Lemon is that if a journalist learned of two individuals plans to rob a bank, and rode along in the getaway car to report on the event, he would certainly be arrested and charged as an accomplice. It does appear that he knew in advance about what was about to happen and was an active participant and not just an observer. Let’s leave it to the courts.
Your side’s politicians have already said we’re at war, Mikey. Don’t start something you’re not ready to finish. Did you really think the communist utopia was going to happen without your team taking casualties, or is this just performative outrage in the service of your dialectic?