United States and Canada Overview: February 2026

Demonstration trends

This section provides key figures on demonstration events, which includes incidents categorized as "Protests," and "Violent demonstrations" as recorded by ACLED. For more information on event and sub-event types, see the ACLED Codebook

Radical group trends

This section provides key figures on far-right and white nationalist groups.²

Correction: The first version of this report incorrectly reported 13 radical groups active and 5 of them white nationalist. The numbers have been corrected. 

United States: Demonstrations against US intervention in Venezuela spike after Maduro raid

On 3 January, the US military bombed Venezuela, then captured and arrested President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. US Delta Forces stormed Maduro’s compound in Caracas, moved the president aboard the warship USS Iwo Jima, then transported him to New York, where he faces criminal charges related to “narco-terrosism.”³ President Donald Trump justified the operation by citing the goal of reducing migration from Venezuela, Maduro’s purported ties to drug cartels and gangs, and a desire to access Venezuela’s oil.⁴

Over 250 demonstrations against US military intervention were recorded in January, with protesters expressing opposition to the violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law, concerns about the operation’s lack of congressional approval, and fears that the strikes could spiral into a larger military conflict. These demonstrations took place in at least 46 states and Washington, DC, accounting for around 12% of all demonstration activity in January. 

United States: “Free America” walkouts drive a spike in anti-Trump rallies on the first anniversary of his presidency 

On 20 January — one year since the beginning of Trump’s second term as president — a coalition of groups organized nationwide weekday walkouts, many of which were accompanied by demonstrations, at schools, workplaces, and businesses to show opposition to Trump and his anti-immigration crackdown. Roughly 20% of demonstrations organized in January showed explicit opposition to Trump, with 20 January representing the largest spike in Trump demonstrations since the No Kings II day of action on 18 October 2025. 

The “Free America” protests were organized by the 50501 movement — which has been involved in planning several previous anti-Trump “days of action” — as well as the organizers behind the Women's March, which first mobilized massive anti-Trump demonstrations in 2017.⁵ Unlike previous days of action, the main focus of “Free America” was not to organize as many demonstrations as possible, but to create economic impact by having workers walk out of their jobs.

United States: Immigration enforcement officers kill two people in Minnesota, provoking spikes in protests and physical confrontations

Two fatal shootings during the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Operation Metro Surge caused a major escalation in the ever-mounting tensions surrounding the Trump administration’s aggressive migration crackdown. Metro Surge, centered in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, is a deportation operation spearheaded by ICE involving over 3,000 federal agents, making it the agency’s largest-ever operation. The 7 January killing of Renee Good and the 24 January killing of Alex Pretti sparked national outrage, leading to over 1,000 demonstrations across the country calling for justice, as well as spikes in physical confrontations between law enforcement agents and demonstrators in Minnesota. Nationwide, 72% of all demonstrations in January were in support of migrants or opposition to ICE, making pro-migration demonstrations by far the largest share of demonstration activity.

Throughout Operation Metro Surge, tensions boiled over to levels previously unseen under the Trump administration, with physical confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement — including physical violence, forceful dispersals, and arrests — spiking in the aftermath of the ICE officer shooting Good. An analysis of ACLED data found that confrontations took place in up to 30% of demonstrations in the first half of the month, peaking in the week after Good was killed, before falling in the second half of January. This figure represents more than 10 times the average rate of physical confrontations in the more than 8,500 pro-immigration protests recorded since the beginning of Trump’s second term. 

After US Border Patrol Agents killed Alex Pretti, Trump said that he would “de-escalate” the situation in Minnesota.⁶ He ousted the head of Border Patrol, Greg Bovino, and adopted a conciliatory tone, calling the killings of both Pretti and Good “terrible.” These remarks stood in stark contrast to those of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump officials, who had justified the shootings and characterized Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists.⁷ White House border czar Tom Homan announced on 4 February that the Trump administration would be pulling 700 federal agents out of the state.⁸

See more of ACLED’s coverage on the United States.