Which red states reported the largest anti‑ICE demonstrations during the January 30–31 actions?
Executive summary
Among the national coverage of the January 30–31 “National Shutdown” and “ICE Out of Everywhere” actions, the only red state singled out by multiple outlets for notable local disruption was Tennessee — specifically Knoxville, where student walkouts were reported — while the largest, best‑documented demonstrations occurred in traditionally blue jurisdictions such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles [1] [2] [3]. The broader reporting does not provide a ranked list of demonstrations by state, and does not supply reliable crowd‑size comparisons for most red states, limiting definitive claims about which red states hosted the absolute largest actions [1] [4].
1. Tennessee: the clearest red‑state example cited by national outlets
Several national reports singled out Knoxville, Tennessee, as a site where high school students staged walkouts and local actions as part of the national day of protest, making Tennessee the most consistently mentioned red state in the available coverage [1] [2]. The Guardian’s roundup highlighted Knoxville among many local events across the country, and Reuters likewise noted student walkouts in U.S. towns and cities as a widespread feature of the day of action, with Knoxville specifically called out in those summaries [1] [2].
2. Major demonstrations were concentrated in blue or Democratic‑run cities, not red states
The most heavily reported, largest demonstrations — “thousands” in Minneapolis that filled roughly ten city blocks and large marches in Los Angeles — were located in states and cities with Democratic administrations or recent progressive organizing histories, and these received detailed counting and visual documentation from outlets including The New York Times, Reuters and local press [5] [2] [3]. Multiple photographers and wire pieces documented Minneapolis as the epicenter of the protests, while Los Angeles drew large crowds and confrontations with police, underscoring that the biggest documented concentrations of protesters were outside the red‑state list in the provided reporting [5] [3].
3. Coverage gap: reporting did not enumerate or rank red‑state crowd sizes
National and local coverage compiled by Guardian, Reuters, The New York Times and others mapped hundreds of protests across states “from California to Maine,” but none of the supplied reports offered a systematic, source‑verified ranking of demonstrations by state or a complete count focused on red states specifically; that absence prevents precise cross‑state comparison for red jurisdictions [1] [4]. While many small towns and states were listed in local roundups (for example, Rhode Island’s local paper listed several planned actions), those pieces did not quantify turnout in red states to a level that supports declaring any red state clearly hosted “the largest” anti‑ICE demonstration on Jan. 30–31 [6] [4].
4. Alternative interpretations and implicit agendas in the sources
Organizers framed the actions as a nationwide “no work, no school, no shopping” shutdown and an “ICE Out of Everywhere” mobilization, which naturally prioritized broad participation claims over granular crowd tallies; this framing appears in organizing materials and in explanatory reporting and can create an impression of uniformly large turnout even where evidence is thin [4] [7]. Media outlets focused on striking visuals and large urban marches — especially Minneapolis after on‑scene incidents earlier in January — which skews perceived geography of the movement toward where protesters and cameras converged rather than toward a representative, state‑by‑state census [5] [2].
Conclusion: the direct answer, with limits
Based on the supplied reporting, Tennessee (Knoxville) is the clearest red‑state example of a notable anti‑ICE action reported during January 30–31, while the largest documented demonstrations were in blue jurisdictions such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles; the available reporting does not supply comprehensive, source‑verified crowd counts for other red states and therefore cannot support a more detailed ranked list of “largest” red‑state protests [1] [5] [2] [3]. Any claim beyond that would require more complete, state‑by‑state crowd estimates or local reporting from additional red states not present in the provided sources.