A nationwide call to protest President Trump’s violent immigration crackdown led Vermonters to take to the streets and small business owners to close their doors across the state Friday.
In Vermont, at least 15 small businesses announced that they would be closing for all or part of the day in response to the “ICE Out” movement, according to social media posts and newsletters from local businesses. At least six others announced that they would remain open, but donate a portion of their proceeds to anti-ICE or Minneapolis-related causes.
“Standing with Minneapolis in this pretty astoundingly difficult time … is the simplest of things we can do,” said Xavier Jimenez, co-owner of Buch Spieler Records in Montpelier, one of the businesses that made the decision to close Friday.
The “ICE Out” movement began as an effort to demonstrate resistance against the actions of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, according to a website for the event. The movement called for “No work. No school. No shopping.”
“The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents,” organizers said on the website. “Every day, ICE, Border Patrol and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear. It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!”
Knate Lander, Buch Spieler Records’ co-owner, said watching the news about Minneapolis has made him feel like the government is trying to take away people’s power. It had him reflecting on where his power lies — and the fact that one source of power is money.
“There’s a lot of money to be made off of fear,” he said. “There’s a lot of money to be made off of insecurity. And so I think that the national strike saying we’re not thinking about money right now, we’re not thinking about earning, we’re thinking about supporting.”
Jenny Sebold, the owner of Rebel Heart Collective, a jewelry and clothing store in Montpelier, said that closing for a day is a huge hit to her business. But she decided to stomach the business loss because she just needed to take some action, she said.
“The cost of what we’re up against is far greater,” Sebold said.
It’s unclear how many individual Vermonters may have chosen to walk out of school or work on Friday, since no organization is tracking those participants.
In Williston, the majority of the staff of the Jean Garvin School, a therapeutic school under the Howard Center, announced their intention to strike Friday even as the school remains open.
In a press release, the staff members said they planned to use the strike to “empower students, families, and the community by modeling social action” and educate the community on individual rights and the history of organizing.
50501 Vermont, an organization that has coordinated past movements like “No Kings” day in October, has tracked eight demonstrations happening on Friday and Saturday in Burlington, Barre, Bennington, Brattleboro, Manchester, Richmond and Woodstock.
