![Kim Oliver, of Chesterfield, protests U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s fatal shootings of Minnesota residents Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Pretti earlier this month on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in downtown St. Louis. “I'm proud to be a part of a community like this,” she said. “I think our voices being heard does make a difference [and] it's just a great feeling to be a part on the right side of history.”](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a798e87/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F87%2F97%2Fe76daff44f139e7be13847d98d90%2F012726-bm-ice-1.jpg)
Demonstrators from the Missouri Workers Center and its allies marched in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday night, demanding that Enterprise cease renting cars to ICE agents and calling for a general strike on Friday.
Hundreds of protesters spanning a city block faced slushy roads and a wind chill in the teens outside City Hall and Enterprise Center. Many held signs expressing solidarity with Minneapolis protesters and calling for unity and collective action.
Federal agents on a Minneapolis street fatally shot Alex Pretti on Saturday morning during a protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Protests have erupted throughout Minneapolis and other major cities since the killing of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE officer on Jan. 7.
Thousands gathered for a general strike and protest in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon in subzero temperatures to protest the killing of Macklin Good. Missouri Workers Center organizers advocated for a general strike this Friday in solidarity with Minneapolis protesters.
In October, the National Catholic Reporter reported that St. Louis-based Enterprise has two contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, but neither involves ICE. The report said that the agency could be using short-term leases that would not appear in the contracts database referenced in the story.
Enterprise has yet to comment on any ties to ICE.
Immigrant families show their support
Isabel, a St. Louis resident and leader with the Missouri Workers Center who declined to share her last name, told the crowd that ICE agents detained her daughter’s partner last year, leaving his pregnant partner and four children with no income in St. Louis. Isabel said there are not enough jobs to pay her enough to feed six extra people and keep up with bills.
“America belongs to all of us, the people who get up every day and make this country work,” Isabel said. “We demand ICE out of Minnesota and out of Missouri now because the workers united will never be defeated.”
Yocelyn Liviapoma, 33, marched with protesters Tuesday night. She grew up in St. Louis with her parents, who emigrated from Peru and Ecuador and gained American citizenship. She said she carries her passport everywhere out of fear that she may be asked to prove her citizenship at any moment.
“My siblings and I, we're continuing this fight for our families, our generations,” Liviapoma said. “But yes, our community is scared.”
Michaela Milton, 35, and Claire Milton, 33, attended the march in solidarity with Minnesotans. The pair is traveling to Minneapolis next week to visit Claire’s brother, who they say is “frozen” in fear of ICE in his neighborhood.
“The shooting was two miles from our friend's house,” Michaela said. “It's a dystopia. So we're just going up there (and) whatever they want to do, we'll do.”
Krystin Lewis, 35, brought a sign that read: “Hey Mayor Spencer! Where ya at, girl?”
“I think we need to know what she plans to do when they come here, and we're being threatened,” Lewis said.
Missouri Workers Center Executive Director Jeremy Al-Haj demanded that developer Platform Ventures cease attempts to build an ICE detention center in Kansas City in a statement issued Monday.
“The best of America is its tradition of workers coming together as one people and overcoming what divides us to demand a more free and equal society,” Al-Haj said. “We won’t stop fighting until we win pathways to citizenship for our neighbors and working class siblings who don’t currently have one, but also the kind of citizenship that makes America stand on its promise of liberty and justice for all.”
ICE presence in St. Louis
While ICE’s presence in Missouri is not as visible as in Minneapolis, ICE continues to detain St. Louis residents. Two people died in ICE custody in Missouri last year, including 27-year-old St. Louis resident Brayan Garzón-Rayo. ICE agents detained a dozen workers in a raid at a St. Peters restaurant and used battering rams to enter homes where 20 of the restaurant’s employees lived.
Alicia Hernandez works with the Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project, a partner organization of the Missouri Workers Center that uses legal services, organizing, advocacy, and education to help low-income immigrant families in St. Louis. She said immigration and workers’ rights intersect in the daily lives of undocumented families.
“My parents were undocumented workers, and one of the themes that we kind of felt in my household was ‘wanted, not welcome,’” Hernandez said. “A lot of immigrant and migrant people are also workers, and oftentimes they are exploited workers, so it is very much an issue.”
She said 89% of people detained by ICE in Missouri were arrested during a traffic stop in what members of the MICA Project are calling the “police to ICE pipeline.”
“We're seeing people who are here the ‘right way,’ I say in quotations, are still being detained and deported,” Hernandez said. “I would even go to say that legal pathways, legal avenues, are being ripped away from people.”
Hernandez said families and staff at the MICA Project are carrying on through uncertainty.
“While it is a fearful time, I think people are still resilient and coming together and figuring out how we move forward to beat this and to live through this.”
STLPR's Lacretia Wimbley contributed reporting to this story.
