In a powerful speech to the Minneapolis City Council, a nurse broke down as she shed light on the fear so many in her profession are feeling as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have stormed the city.
“In Minneapolis I feel like I’m a duck,” the speaker began in a January 15 speech. “I don’t feel safe at home. I don’t feel safe at work. Children aren’t safe at school,” she said, sobbing. “I was born in Minneapolis and I am terrified because I have skin that is not white and that is not fair.”
The speaker further claimed that the presence of ICE and the aggressive tactics officers are increasingly using have created a “public health emergency” in the city. She said nurses now fear for their own safety and that of their patients of color, many of whom may be too afraid to leave home and seek medical care when they need it, regardless of their immigration status.
“What happens when ICE enters our hospitals?” she said. “Where is our moral code?”
The speech was delivered a week after Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in her own Minneapolis neighborhood. Since Good’s death, ICE’s actions appear to have become even more extreme. Just hours after the murder, reports of officers tear-gassing students outside a school began to circulate. After the incident, Minneapolis public schools canceled classes for the rest of the week, citing safety concerns.
In another recent incidentICE agents dragged several employees out of a Target store. Videos of the incident are circulating online, causing outrage.
But even as workplaces are disrupted by violent altercations at the hands of immigration authorities and employees feel unsafe at work (or too afraid to go to work in the first place), major companies remain silent. Fast Company reached out to Target, General Mills, Best Buy, Carhartt, and others to get their stance on ICE’s presence, but no company responded.
Fear is impacting a number of business sectors, especially those that employ large numbers of undocumented immigrants, including restaurants, agriculture and construction. On January 19, Minnesota Senator Aric Putnam was joined by agricultural leaders at a press conference to discuss the growing fears. Putnam said both documented and undocumented people are staying home because they are too afraid to go to work.
“People are really experiencing this fear and anxiety. This is about fear,” Putnam said. “Real cops don’t wear masks. That’s just how it works.”
Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, warned that fears of deportation will inevitably impact food deliveries. “We are working with restaurants in the Minneapolis area and other parts of the state,” he said. “They’re closing because their employees, even though they’re legal, are afraid to leave their homes. They’re afraid to go to work.”
While the economic toll on Minnesota is not yet known, the impact was crushing when ICE showed up on California farms. A case study from 2025 looking at the economic impact of ICE on California’s agricultural industry, it was estimated that it caused crop losses of anywhere from $3 billion to $7 billion and a 5% to 12% increase in the price of produce.
Also according to recent reports from The Minnesota Star TribuneAbout 80% of immigrant-owned businesses along major thoroughfares in both Minneapolis and St. Paul were closed as of Jan. 13 as workers stayed home en masse. GoFundMe pages are popping up to support workers and their families.
“Right before Christmas, a lot of businesses told us that sales were down 50%, 70%, 80%,” Allison Sharkey, president of Lake Street Council, told the outlet. “Now this week? For many companies it is at zero.”
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