M
MercyNews
Home
Back
Minnesota Braces for Statewide Protest Against ICE
Politics

Minnesota Braces for Statewide Protest Against ICE

France 2417h ago
3 min read
📋

Key Facts

  • ✓ Minnesota is preparing for a coordinated statewide day of protest on January 23, involving widespread absences from schools and businesses.
  • ✓ The protest's central goal is to 'ICE out ICE,' a direct response to an intensified immigration crackdown sweeping the state.
  • ✓ Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on January 22 to publicly back the federal enforcement efforts.
  • ✓ During his visit, Vance issued a warning to local officials, urging them to cooperate with federal authorities.
  • ✓ The planned shutdown represents a significant grassroots mobilization against current federal immigration policies.
  • ✓ The event is expected to highlight deep divisions between federal enforcement priorities and local community resistance.

In This Article

  1. Statewide Shutdown Looms
  2. The Protest Plan
  3. Federal Response
  4. Context of Crackdown
  5. A State Divided
  6. What Comes Next

Statewide Shutdown Looms#

Minnesota is preparing for a significant statewide day of protest on January 23, as residents mobilize against intensified immigration enforcement. The planned action involves staying home from schools and businesses in a coordinated effort to "ICE out ICE."

This movement emerges as federal immigration crackdowns sweep across the state, creating a climate of tension and resistance. The scale of the planned protest suggests a widespread community response to recent policy shifts.

The Protest Plan#

Organizers are calling for a complete shutdown of daily activities on January 23. The strategy involves residents refusing to attend work or school, effectively halting normal commerce and education to demonstrate collective opposition.

The core objective is to "ICE out ICE"—a direct challenge to the presence and operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the state. This grassroots effort aims to disrupt the status quo and draw public attention to the ongoing enforcement actions.

Key elements of the protest include:

  • Widespread absence from workplaces
  • Shutdown of school attendance
  • Business closures in solidarity
  • Community-wide participation

"Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on January 22, backing the enforcement and warning local officials to cooperate."

— Source Content

Federal Response#

In a direct response to the growing unrest, Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on January 22. His visit served as a high-profile endorsement of the ongoing federal enforcement efforts.

During his appearance, Vance issued a clear warning to local officials, urging them to cooperate with federal authorities. This move underscores the federal government's commitment to maintaining its immigration enforcement operations despite local opposition.

Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis on January 22, backing the enforcement and warning local officials to cooperate.

Context of Crackdown#

The protest is a direct reaction to an intensified immigration crackdown that has been sweeping across Minnesota. This federal initiative has heightened tensions between immigrant communities, local advocates, and federal agents.

The atmosphere in the state has become increasingly charged as enforcement actions have escalated. Residents and community leaders have expressed concern over the methods and scope of these operations, leading to the mobilization of a statewide protest.

A State Divided#

The upcoming protest highlights a significant political and social divide within Minnesota. On one side, federal authorities are doubling down on enforcement, backed by the highest levels of government.

On the other side, a broad coalition of residents, businesses, and educational institutions are preparing to stand in opposition. The January 23 shutdown represents a critical moment where economic and social pressure is being used as a tool for political expression.

What Comes Next#

The events of January 23 will serve as a major indicator of the community's resolve and the potential for further escalation. The success of the shutdown could influence future policy discussions and enforcement strategies.

As the day approaches, all eyes remain on Minnesota. The outcome will likely shape the ongoing national debate over immigration enforcement and the rights of local communities to resist federal mandates.

Continue scrolling for more

AI Transforms Mathematical Research and Proofs
Technology

AI Transforms Mathematical Research and Proofs

Artificial intelligence is shifting from a promise to a reality in mathematics. Machine learning models are now generating original theorems, forcing a reevaluation of research and teaching methods.

Just now
4 min
356
Read Article
Zelensky Slams EU's Lack of 'Political Will' Against Putin
Politics

Zelensky Slams EU's Lack of 'Political Will' Against Putin

In a sharp departure from his usual warm rhetoric, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly criticized the European Union for its perceived lack of 'political will' in countering Russian aggression during a high-profile address.

17h
3 min
1
Read Article
EU Remains Vigilant After Trump's Greenland Tariff Retreat
Politics

EU Remains Vigilant After Trump's Greenland Tariff Retreat

Despite withdrawing tariff threats against European nations regarding Greenland, the European Union maintains a cautious stance. President Trump's new 'Board of Peace' initiative faces widespread rejection as it appears to rival the United Nations.

17h
5 min
1
Read Article
How a Recent Grad Landed a Job at Snap Without Tech Internships
Technology

How a Recent Grad Landed a Job at Snap Without Tech Internships

Sreeja Apparaju, a 24-year-old machine learning engineer at Snap, shares her journey from finance to tech and the unconventional networking trick that helped her land her dream job.

17h
7 min
1
Read Article
Who's Board of Peace and who's bored of peace? The quiz knows — do you?
Entertainment

Who's Board of Peace and who's bored of peace? The quiz knows — do you?

Plus: The Oscars, tool-using animals, Nobel drama and more.

17h
3 min
0
Read Article
The Pentagon is going to Silicon Valley for its next recruits
Politics

The Pentagon is going to Silicon Valley for its next recruits

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images The Pentagon has a new pitch for young adults: skip the Army, and write code instead. Undersecretary of Defense Emil Michael said on the No Priors podcast that he hopes students leave college for "a two-year stint" in government. The program follows others, like DOGE, that encourage young adults to serve in the government. The Defense Department is rethinking what it means to serve your country, and it no longer necessarily involves a uniform. Through a new initiative called the US Tech Force, the federal government is recruiting college students and Silicon Valley's brightest to spend two years modernizing government systems, working as engineers, data scientists, and technical leaders. "We're hoping to get thousands of people out of college for a two-year stint — sort of make it, this is your service to the country as a technologist rather than as a soldier," Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the agency's chief technology officer, said last week on the No Priors podcast, a tech show hosted by venture capitalists Sarah Guo and Elad Gil. Michael previously worked as Uber's chief business officer. "We're going to try to make that a badge of honor," he added. The Office of Personnel Management, which is headed by former VC Scott Kupor, is coordinating the early-career program in partnership with other agencies, including the Department of Defense. Salaries will likely range from around $130,000 to $195,000, Kupor said in December. The program, announced in December, joins a long history of initiatives by Silicon Valley technologists to pluck students out of classrooms and into boardrooms. Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency famously brought a youthful energy and move-fast-and-break-things ethos to Capitol Hill. Palantir's Meritocracy Fellowship implored high schoolers to "skip the indoctrination" of college and "get the Palantir Degree." Michael told Guo he is personally doing some of the candidate hunting, spending what he calls "recruiting Tuesdays," dialing his investor buddies for people "on the bench" and technologists in his network who recently left a job: "I'm like, 'Hey, do you have a year to spare doing the coolest stuff you could possibly imagine?'" Read the original article on Business Insider

17h
3 min
0
Read Article
Get ready for legal tech's merger mania
Technology

Get ready for legal tech's merger mania

Sona and Mariam Sulakian. Filevine Legal tech giants like Harvey and Filevine are buying startups to add new features to their software. The consolidation is driven by increased demand for legal software with more features. Smaller legal tech startups may face pressure to join larger companies or risk not getting traction. Legal tech is entering its consolidation era. Early signs are already visible. This week, Harvey, an $8 billion legal software giant, acquired Hexus, a sales tech startup built by former Google and Twitter (now X) engineers. Filevine, another major legal tech player, recently snapped up Pincites, a four-person startup that was an early Y Combinator bet on what has since become one of legal tech's hottest frontiers: artificial intelligence-powered contract drafting and revision. And earlier this month, Microsoft quietly absorbed 18 employees from the legal software startup Robin AI after it filed for bankruptcy. Industry executives say this is just the beginning. Early winners of the legal tech boom are expected to buy smaller companies to extend their leads and add new features to their software. For teams in a crowded legal tech market, joining one of those platforms is increasingly attractive, said John Locke, a Filevine investor and partner at Accel, who leads the firm's growth fund. He believes Harvey and Filevine could both be significant public companies someday. "They're now at a point where people look at them and say, 'I would like to join that fast train,'" Locke said. Pincites wasn't looking for an exit. The company was founded in 2023 by two sisters working from home. Sona Sulakian was a transactional patent attorney. Mariam Sulakian worked on GitHub Copilot, focusing on security. They saw a gap: Lawyers negotiate contracts inside Microsoft Word, but most AI tools lived elsewhere. They built a Word plug-in lawyers actually used, and racked up customers including Redis, Glean, and Vercel. In 2023, Pincites raised a seed round led by Nat Friedman, GitHub's former CEO, and Daniel Gross, who, with Friedman, now works in Meta's superintelligence lab. Investors encouraged the sisters to raise another round of funding. Then the inbound acquisition interest started. At one point, there were at least five or six term sheets on the table, Ryan Anderson, Filevine's founder and CEO, said. The sisters initially waved them off. What changed, both sides said, was familiarity. Filevine had already been a customer. Its internal legal team used the Pincites software for contract redlining — the process of marking up and revising contract drafts during negotiations — and pushed Anderson to take a closer look. Founded in 2014, the Utah company now manages over 13 million active legal matters on the platform and sells software used by law firms, corporate legal teams, and government agencies. Its customers include Kroger, Goodwill, the Utah Jazz, and five state attorneys general. Filevine has raised over $600 million in funding to date and was last valued at $3 billion. What the company lacked was a next-generation redlining tool. Some competitors, Anderson noted, promote redlining as a core feature. To compete for enterprise and mid-market deals, Filevine needed a comparable offering. The entire Pincites team is joining Filevine and will anchor a new San Francisco office. Over time, the product will be folded into Filevine's system, creating what Anderson calls "a single pane of glass" where users can draft and edit documents, pull in context from other systems, and track time and billing. For the Sulakian sisters, the decision came down to distribution. Pincites had more ideas than it had capacity to execute, they said, and expanding its customer base fast enough to capture the market would have required years of additional fundraising and hiring. Joining a larger platform offered a shortcut. Pincites didn't sell because it was distressed, Mariam said. "We would have been fine no matter what." It sold because the market is maturing. After years of experimenting with narrow, single-purpose tools, law firms and in-house legal teams are looking to simplify, Sona said. Managing a patchwork of apps became costly and unwieldy, particularly for smaller firms. That pressure is now driving a "shakeout of point solutions," said Omar Haroun, cofounder and chief executive of the legal tech company Eudia. "The winners will be platforms embedded in daily legal workflows and tied to outcomes," Haroun said. "The rest will be acquired, merged, or phased out." That dynamic mirrors what played out during the rise of mobile software. Smartphones unleashed a wave of narrowly focused apps, made possible by cheap development and easy distribution. But as platforms matured, users tired of app sprawl, and the biggest companies began bundling features or buying competitors outright. Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. Google bought Waze. Legal tech now appears to be entering a similar phase, as large language models lower the barrier to building these tools — and raise the bar for surviving as a standalone company. Over $4 billion flowed into startups building technology for lawyers last year, nearly double the amount raised the year before, according to Crunchbase. More than a third of last year's investment went to just three companies: Harvey, Filevine, and Clio, which sells software used by law firms to track cases and send invoices. Last year, Clio scooped up the legal research platform vLex for $1 billion, part of its push to become the system of record for small and midsize firms. With that concentration of capital comes pressure. The biggest players have to deploy it. And smaller startups have to prove they can hold their own. For some builders, the choice may increasingly be to sell — before the window narrows further. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at mrussell@businessinsider.com or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a non-work device. Read the original article on Business Insider

17h
3 min
0
Read Article
Elon Musk's X suddenly has a lot of 'articles.' I'm not sure I want to read them.
Technology

Elon Musk's X suddenly has a lot of 'articles.' I'm not sure I want to read them.

X, a place for Articles. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto X is promoting its "articles" feature by running a $1 million contest for the most viral article. An article about self-help recently went viral. Self-contained articles on X are missing out on the vibrant conversations around news that old Twitter had. In the past few days on X, you haven't been able to escape a certain post that's gone viral. It offers to teach you "How to fix your life in 1 day." It's an "article," a newish feature that allows paid users to publish longer posts. What, exactly, are these new articles, and why are they everywhere? Let's start with the "How to fix your life" article, which has been retweeted more than 54,000 times. Its author, self-help writer Dan Koe, didn't respond to my DM asking to talk about his post. His article outlines steps to shifting your mindset to achieve goals. (This may be very appealing to people who have goals or strive for self-improvement, but as someone who is quite content to be stuck in my mediocre ways, this kind of self-help thing isn't really my jam.) I would say that, just from a content standpoint, it's sort of unusual for something like this to go super viral — it's long, it's sort of hard to read, it's not about something newsy or buzzy like, say, a Hollywood mom group fallout. I can't say for sure why this captured so much attention last week; perhaps it was just the right timing, with X wanting to push the new article format. The $1 million prize contest We’re trying something new: we’re giving $1 million to the Top Article of the next payout period. We're doubling down on what creators on 𝕏 do best: writing. In 2026, our goal is to recognize high-value, high-impact content that shapes conversation, breaks news and moves… pic.twitter.com/4hKBJNvNIg — Creators (@XCreators) January 16, 2026 Elon Musk's X is now offering a $1 million prize to whoever has the most viral article in the next week or so. As you might imagine, this has created a glut of articles, some of which are low-quality and likely generated by Grok or another AI. The most interesting version of this so far is an article by a blogger who goes by "ratlimit," who posted an article saying that if they win the prize, they'll split the winnings with the people who retweeted it. So far, it's been RT'd over 1,600 times. Clever! There's also, of course, a backlash. One article went moderately viral with the headline, "These ugly ass Articles have got to go," making the general point that these are unpleasant to come across in your timeline. As someone who writes articles professionally, I suppose I have mixed feelings and a compromised perspective. I also enjoy reading lots of different kinds of articles. In fact, "reading articles" is one of my favorite pastimes! Not just news — I love a blog post! A review! A half-formed thought! Frankly, it feels like there aren't enough articles to read lately, and I welcome more. But these X articles? I'm not sure this is it. The problem is that articles written directly onto X are going to have a bit of a self-selection bias toward the kind of person who is really into X and wants to make money off X posts. That's probably … not someone I want to hear from a lot. As X has gone deeper and deeper into a place that's somewhat unpleasant and potentially just kind of gross (the popular recent trend of asking Grok to undress people was, I think, a final straw for a lot of folks), is this really the place I want to read articles? Maybe! There's certainly still newsmakers on there, especially in certain niches like AI and tech, and hearing their thoughts is reason enough for me to stick around. But is X a place I want to go for lengthy ideas about self-improvement? No, not even for a million dollars. Read the original article on Business Insider

17h
3 min
0
Read Article
Russia Unveils 2036 Protected Areas Strategy
Politics

Russia Unveils 2036 Protected Areas Strategy

A new long-term strategy for Russia's protected natural territories has been presented to the State Duma, outlining plans for expansion and a new administrative structure, though it has already faced criticism from experts.

17h
5 min
1
Read Article
China Rescues Filipino Sailors Near Disputed Shoal
World_news

China Rescues Filipino Sailors Near Disputed Shoal

In a dramatic maritime incident, the Chinese Coast Guard successfully rescued 21 Filipino sailors whose cargo vessel capsized near the contested Scarborough Shoal, highlighting complex geopolitical dynamics in the South China Sea.

17h
5 min
1
Read Article
🎉

You're all caught up!

Check back later for more stories

Back to Home