Small Businesses Feel The Impact Of Local ICE Presence

It seemed like a simple request. I had to drop off my kids on Sunday, so I called my ex-wife and offered to buy brunch on Sunday. I do it all the time; it’s a chance to sit down as a group and go over things together.

My ex-wife and my kids, when they’re with her, live in New Brighton. It’s a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis.

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The restaurant scene around her house was a ghost town. The lights were off, and the doors were locked. At 1:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon at far too many restaurants.

Living in St. Cloud, I was a little flummoxed as to why. Then my ex-wife looked at me and said “ICE”.

It was no surprise to find an article this morning listing a growing list of small businesses that are closed due to ICE activity. Small businesses are closing to protect their employees and customers from an uncertain environment. It’s going to get worse on Friday, the “Day of Truth and Freedom” in Minneapolis.

For a growing list of Minneapolis restaurants and businesses that are planning on closing Friday, click here.

Why? If they aren’t hiring illegal immigrants, they have nothing to hide! That may not be as clear-cut as it seems. While independent third-party data is impossible to come by, Tom Homan, the White House’s Border Czar, says that ICE has made “collateral damage” detentions of American citizens. According to Homan, ICE may detain people "based on the location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions like... the person walks away."

So, legal U.S. citizens won’t be arrested, but they may be harassed by agents. That harassment can take many forms, from a line of questioning to your car window being broken and you dragged out of your car. All in the name of “collateral damage”.

Why bother?

In a world where perception is reality, the idea that someone can be detained based on their occupation would be enough for some to call in sick to work or avoid going out altogether. So, do you close the shop and tell employees to stay home, or open up for customers that may never come?

This is January in Minnesota. It is not a really good time for small businesses, especially in retail and food service, to have cash flow. We should be making a special trip to help out small businesses, not staying home.

When all this immigration business is over and done with, I think we’ll all have some serious questions to ask. I understand that the immigration laws need to be followed, but do small businesses have to suffer to do it? Once this is all over, the feds will go back to where they came from, and we’ll have to pick up the pieces. I’m afraid there’s going to be A LOT of pieces.