Angry Minnesota Democrats want $200 million in taxpayer reparations because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers prevented Minneapolis businesses from employing low-wage illegal migrants.
“Minneapolis taxpayers should not be left to foot the bill for this situation that has been created by the federal government,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“The city’s very financial stability has been called into question because of the actions of the federal government,” complained City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher at a February 13 press conference.
The claimed cost comes after city officials deliberately used low-skilled and hardly-working legal and illegal migrants to spur economic growth in the city. They have also established “Sanctuary City” rules to shield this low-productivity, welfare-boosted economy of restaurants, retail, and rents from the American families who lose wages, housing, and wealth.
Their resulting Sanctuary City Economy suffered an economic heart attack when President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement officers arrived in December to arrest illegal migrant workers, migrant criminals, and far-left activists who are trying to protect the Sanctuary City Economy.
Amid the ICE enforcement, illegal migrants rationally skipped work and hid in their apartments. Restaurants and other businesses cut services as the few American employees gained overtime pay. Their employers lost revenue, and the city lost tax payments. ICE also arrested more than 4,000 illegals, costing many landlords rent payments.
As ICE continues to deport local migrants, the free market will pressure CEOs to raise Americans’ wages and pressure landlords to cut Americans’ rents.
But Democrats are demanding that American taxpayers compensate their city for the damage caused by their illegal Sanctuary City Economy.
Mayor Frey complained about the impact of law enforcement without distinguishing between Americans, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants:
76,000 people are in need of urgent relief and assistance. We’ve seen at least $203 million in economic impact in just January alone. We were seeing somewhere between $10 and $20 million worth of losses to small and local businesses per week. Small businesses have collectively lost more than $80 million in revenue. Hotel losses exceed $5 million and more than 75,000 additional people are experiencing some form of food insecurity. Thousands of school-age children are in need of services. This is not even an exhaustive list… our focus must now be on moving forward and making sure that our neighbors and businesses have our support.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor, Tim Walz, made similar demands last week.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported February 13:
Frey said the federal government should step up with financial assistance, as well as the state. Minneapolis is an economic engine for Minnesota, he noted, sending $3 to state coffers for every $1 it receives. “I’m not too naive to think that we’re going to go to the state and federal legislatures and get the entire amount,” he said.
…
The [city] council voted Feb. 5 to spend $1 million to help about 250 families pay rent and voted to spend another $500,000 for immigration legal services. Next week, the council is set to consider spending $5 million to help small businesses because many immigrant-owned businesses have closed or scaled back hours as people stayed away and sales plummeted.
ICE continues to operate in Minnesota and Minneapolis. It can add more pressure by auditing companies for their hiring paperwork, and by sending out “No-match” letters when it discovers fraudulent paperwork. Justice Department officials are also Democrats’ tacit approval of large-scale taxpayer fraud by various healthcare companies.
The Democrats’ pushback against Trump’s deportations is an indirect attack on Trump’s low-migration, high-productivity national economic strategy and his 2026 policy on affordability.
Under Trump’s low-migration, high-deportation reforms, Americans’ wages are up, housing costs are down, inflation is declining, transport costs are shrinking, crime is dropping, and corporations are spending heavily to help Americans become more productive and earn more wages for each working hour.
The pro-citizen, pro-wage policy is deeply opposed by Democrats, who instead promise to raise living standards for migrants and citizens via government benefits.
Business leaders in multiple states are complaining about the cost of complying with popular federal law.
RestaurantBusinessOnline.com reported on January 23 that Trump’s deputies are raising voters’ wages by deporting illegal migrants: “Fewer workers mean restaurants will once again have to compete for employees the only way they can, by paying higher wages. Wages over the next two years are expected to accelerate, according to Oxford Economics, from 3.7 percent this year to 5.6 percent by 2027.
In Idaho, federal enforcement “equates to slower build times, lack of availability on people, and higher rates of wages,” Steve Martinez, from the Idaho Home Builders Association, said at a February 13 press conference.
Democrats promise massive resistance to the popular immigration laws that benefit American families:
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