St. Paul mayor warns ICE surge is gutting local businesses
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her is publicly warning that the federal ICE surge is emptying restaurants and shops in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and eroding residents’ sense of safety, after visiting West Side and East Side corridors where owners report losing most of their customer traffic. Her says families are afraid to leave home for work, school or groceries, and she links the economic damage and fear directly to visible raids and street stops under Operation Metro Surge. She’s pressing federal agencies to keep enforcement away from schools and core business districts and is backing local efforts to strengthen St. Paul’s 'separation' policies that limit how city staff cooperate with immigration enforcement. Business owners and workers quoted in the piece describe sales plunging by more than half and say they’re cutting hours or wondering how long they can stay open if the surge continues.
📌 Key Facts
- Mayor Kaohly Her has been meeting with St. Paul small businesses that report steep customer losses since Operation Metro Surge began in the Twin Cities.
- Owners in immigrant-serving corridors told Her that customers are avoiding the streets and storefronts for fear of encountering ICE or Border Patrol.
- Her is calling for federal agents to stay away from schools and main commercial areas and is supporting tighter city-level limits on ICE cooperation.
📊 Relevant Data
Somali immigrants in Minnesota have a per capita crime rate that is two to five times higher than that of natives when compared apples-to-apples.
Yes, Somali Immigrants Commit More Crime Than Natives — City Journal
Venezuelan immigrants in the US have an incarceration rate of 241 per 100,000, which is lower than the rate for US-born citizens.
Illegal Immigrant Incarceration Rates, 2010–2023 — Cato Institute
Immigrants in Saint Paul make up 33.2 percent of business owners, despite comprising a smaller share of the population.
New research shows immigrants in Saint Paul make up 35.3 percent of manufacturing workers, 39.2 percent of essential service workers, and 33.2 percent of business owners — American Immigration Council
Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities targets criminal illegal aliens, including members of gangs such as MS-13, Paisas, and Oriental Boys, with over 3,000 arrests reported.
The large Somali community in Minnesota resulted from refugee resettlement programs starting in the 1990s, with over 80,000 Somalis now living in the state, the largest such population in the US.
How Minnesota became a hub for Somali immigrants in the U.S. — NPR
Immigrants accounted for nearly 60 percent of Minnesota's total labor force and employment growth from 2019 to 2023.
Immigrants make up growing share of Minnesota's workforce — Sahan Journal
📰 Source Timeline (1)
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