Yoga Studio Confrontation Over ICE Deportations Sparks National Debate

Inside a yoga studio lobby in Northeast Minneapolis, the question was not the sequence of poses but who a wellness space is supposed to stand with when politics walks through the door. At CorePower Yoga, at least 13 women confronted two staffers after a Sunday class, pressing the company to condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an anti-ICE sign was taken down.

The confrontation, captured in a viral video posted by longtime member Heather Anderson, unfolded on Friday, February 6, 2026, and quickly became part of a larger argument about whether yoga studios can stay apolitical when students expect values-based public statements. Anderson later said she wanted CorePower to understand that Minneapolis residents were “really going through it” and that she wanted the studio to support the community.

CorePower said the original anti-ICE sign had been removed and replaced with standardized signage used across its studios. The company also said law enforcement and ICE may only enter with a valid judicial warrant, that it does not condone violent ICE raids, and that it had distributed approved ICE signage across its locations. The chain’s response satisfied none of the tension in the room, where customers were demanding a clearer public posture and staff were left to absorb the pressure.

One account said a CorePower instructor told the group just before the confrontation that she was quitting because her values no longer aligned with the studio. That detail sharpened the stakes for yoga owners across the Twin Cities, where a brand built around breath, calm and consistency was suddenly being judged on its politics, its signage and its response to immigration enforcement.

The fallout did not stop at the studio door. Anderson was later reported to have been permanently banned from CorePower locations. The dispute also landed in the middle of a broader federal immigration-enforcement surge in Minnesota, where the Department of Homeland Security sent more than 2,400 agents, intensifying anti-ICE activism, ICE-watch networks, protests and business shutdowns across Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The pressure has reached other parts of the metro’s wellness and small-business scene as well, with the “ICE Out! Statewide Shutdown” calling on Minnesotans to skip work, school and shopping while restaurants, grocery stores, yoga studios and yarn shops weighed closures or donations. In that climate, a studio lobby became more than a reception area. It became a referendum on whether wellness brands can avoid taking sides when their students no longer expect them to.