Updated at 6:14 p.m.
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 16 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 pro-immigrant 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 decided 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!”
For many Vermont business owners, the decision to close meant accepting real financial losses in service of a larger cause.
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.
At times she’s felt daunted by national news on politics, she said. But she can’t stand to sit inside and cry while she doomscrolls on social media for another day, Sebold said.
“The cost of what we’re up against is far greater,” Sebold said.
Business owners on social media also cited their own financial losses as a concern. Elena Gustavson, owner of the stationery and gift shop Magpie & Tiger in Montpelier, said in a newsletter that she decided to close today despite the fact that every day closed is a “real, financial loss for any small, independent business.”
“The hope and intention is that the collective financial consequences will be felt well beyond our little shop,” she said in the newsletter.
Some participants viewed the economic disruption itself as a form of political power.
Knayte 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.”
The tactic of withholding labor and commerce, though uncomfortable, was seen by some as essential to creating pressure for change.
“Listen yall,” said Slowpoke Exchange in Barre. “Americans really underestimate the power of striking. It’s supposed to be hard, it’s supposed to be awkward, it’s supposed to make the powers that be pay attention.”
For others, the shutdown was about more than economics. It was about forcing conversations that many would rather avoid.
But disrupting everyday life for a day is important because it prompts people to have hard conversations about politics, Jimenez said. He’s struggled to know how to navigate those conversations with his 9-year-old daughter, he said. But he’s often been transparent with her, rather than sheltering her, and prompted conversations about immigration enforcement, he said.
“She worries, and I worry,” Jimenez said. But he thinks it’s important to have the hard conversations with his community and with the people in his life.
His daughter was set to take a field trip to the local high school Friday, Jimenez said Thursday. He hoped his daughter and her classmates might have the chance to talk about current events with the high-schoolers, he said.
Restaurant and food service businesses were among those choosing to close, framing their decision as support for their employees’ right to participate.
“We stand with our team, so they can stand with the people,” said Santiago’s, a Cuban restaurant in Burlington.
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.
Some businesses articulated a sense of moral urgency driving their participation in the protest.
“We believe in this movement,” said Fox Market, a bar and market in East Montpelier. “We feel the desperation of our loved ones (and in our own hearts), the overwhelming violence of the fascist occupation of our country, and we felt the need to do this. We have to do whatever we can do.”
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.
Community-focused businesses also emphasized their role as civic institutions with responsibilities beyond profit.
“We as a Co-op and a beacon of the Burlington community are deeply troubled by the ongoing disregard for civil rights that is happening in our country right now,” said City Market in Burlington.
And 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.
For some establishments, the decision to close reflected a tension between their daily mission of providing comfort and their commitment to social action.
“While it is a joy to serve, connect, and be a sanctuary for customers in a world of uncertainty & chaos — taking a stand to withhold labor & economic values matters,” said Carrier Roasting Company, which closed its Burlington shop for the day.
“No ICE, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.,” chanted people marching down College Street Friday afternoon to protest ICE in Burlington. Several thousand marched downtown, many of them holding posters and chanting slogans as they gathered on the still snow-lined bricks of Church Street and City Hall Park downtown at 3 p.m. in solidarity with Minnesota.
Bookstores connected their closures to both the immediate situation in Minneapolis and broader principles of constitutional rights.
Bridgeside Books said it was closing “in honor of bookstores in Minneapolis unable to open their doors due to ICE occupation, in memory of those killed and abused by ICE, on behalf of those unlawfully detained, and in defense of the constitution.”
The ICE Out protests also come amid fear about the impact of ICE operations on Vermont communities. On Friday, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak put out a press release emphasizing the city’s “unwavering solidarity” with immigrant and refugee communities.
In another press release, she dispelled a rumor of an upcoming ICE surge in Burlington as of Friday. But she also noted that ICE has been active in Burlington and other Vermont communities in recent months, though city officials are not officially notified when ICE activity increases.
The city has asked residents to fill out a tip form from the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project and Migrant Justice to report ICE activity. It has also created a webpage devoted to ICE-related news in Burlington.
Auditi Guha contributed reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Knayte Lander’s name.
Correction: An earlier version of this story under-estimated the amount of people that marched in Burlington.
