State lawmakers press on relief efforts after ICE surge ‘rocked’ local economies

KELLY GORDON: This is Minnesota Now. I'm Kelly Gordon in for Nina Moini. Members of Minnesota's House of Representatives heard from a variety of business owners, think-tank leaders, and government officials to better understand the scope of Operation Metro Surge on the state's economy. DFL State Representative Cedrick Frazier represents the Twin Cities Northwest suburbs of Crystal and New Hope, and he's written a bill to start a relief program for businesses impacted by the surge. He's on the line right now to talk about what comes next. Representative Frazier, thanks for joining me.

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Thanks for having me.

KELLY GORDON: So first, tell me why your committee heard from all these people about how the surge in Minnesota impacted them.

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Well, I think it's important specifically in the Ways and Means Committee, because we are the Finance Committee for the state. It's going to be incumbent upon us when we look at whatever bill, relief package we're going to put out, it will be debated there and go through that process. So it's good for those members to hear directly from the individuals that were harmed.

And of note and underscore, to ensure that members hear that this was not just the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, or Hennepin County, Ramsey County issue. The harm and the impact of Metro Surge was felt all throughout the state.

KELLY GORDON: Yeah. So what was your biggest takeaway from the testimonies that you heard just this morning?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: My biggest takeaway is the fear that's still there. I mean, there's still operations happening within the states via federal agents. So folks are still not as comfortable coming outside or going to work. But also, the fear that if we don't do something as a state to provide relief for some of these small businesses that have been impacted, some of these businesses may close for good and never come back.

KELLY GORDON: So it just lingers. It's the lingering effects of this surge.

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Correct.

KELLY GORDON: Yeah. Saint Paul Mayor Her testified, I heard, at the hearing this morning, and I think she said the surge of ICE agents caused a catastrophic collapse to the local economy. Those are pretty strong words. Can you share more about why this surge had such a dramatic impact?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: I mean, you're looking at a strong foundation of business in this state is-- almost half of our workers work for small businesses. So when you start to have those small businesses impacted the way they were by Metro Surge, it could rock the foundation of the economy in any community that it happened in. And what you heard today from many of those testifiers was exactly that. That's what they were testifying to, was how that impacted-- particularly Mayor Her, how that impact has kind of reverberating and showing itself in those particular communities and cities.

KELLY GORDON: Do you have a sense for what groups or businesses have been hit the hardest?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: I would think most of-- any businesses-- the businesses that were hit the hardest were probably those businesses that were employing individuals that were targeted by this Metro Surge. We know, courts have already said, that there was extreme racial profiling by those federal agents. So any businesses that were employing those particular individuals, who had not done anything wrong, many of them were here documented and legally documented and haven't done anything wrong, but they worked for those businesses, were afraid to go to work. They were afraid to leave their homes. They were keeping their kids home. Those businesses were impacted the most.

And that's again around the state, not just in Minneapolis or Saint Paul or Hennepin County, Ramsey County. But around the state, those businesses saw the most and the harshest impact and the harshest harm.

KELLY GORDON: So the majority of workers and families in Minnesota don't maybe work in, for example, the restaurant or hospitality industry. They don't own a small business. But can you explain how the surge had an economic impact on everyone?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Well, whenever you begin to lose wages individually and also you begin to lose the economic revenue that those small businesses produce, that creates a ripple effect. You've got individuals that can't go out and spend money on groceries. They can't go out and spend money on entertainment. They can't go out and buy school supplies for their kids. They can't pay their rent. They can't put gas in their cars.

And then you have those businesses that are huge and impactful on the tax base because of the tax revenue that they generate for those particular cities and communities. That's when you start to see that kind of ripple effect of the impacts that Metro Surge caused on many of our neighbors around the state.

KELLY GORDON: So it's that trickle down thing. I was really shocked when I saw some of the numbers about the effect on employment in the state that the surge had. Can you talk about that a little bit?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: I mean, clearly, you've got people, one, that stopped going out because they were afraid they were going to get snatched out of their community if they went outside and went to their jobs. But then, two, if you've got the small businesses that have the pause or in some cases, many of them have shut down, you're going to see those unemployment numbers go up. And we're still figuring out what those numbers look like because there's a lag in the data in the way it's reported.

KELLY GORDON: Right. So let's talk a little bit about the details of the economic relief program that you're proposing. Who would get this money? How would they get it?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: So we haven't put a number to it yet, but I'm going to propose $100 million for this economic relief package. Small businesses that were impacted. They'd have to show a particular number of how their revenue was impacted before they get those resources. We would get that money out to what we call CDFIs. These are our local finance agencies that work with our local small businesses. And then they would do the work of vetting these particular entities to determine if they qualify for those resources.

And we've chosen these entities because they are known. We're talking about organizations like our Minneapolis-Saint Paul Foundations that are-- by the way, they've been doing this work already. They have been putting together relief packages for our small businesses that have been harmed. And they just can't cover everything so they're going to need some help from the state to do that. But we've used them because they've been vetted. Know how to do this work, the businesses, the local organizations that work with these small businesses. And they'd be able to do it effectively and efficiently.

KELLY GORDON: Well, and that kind of leads me to this next question, which is that some of your Republican colleagues have brought up concerns around fraud in relief programs, like the one you're proposing. So how would you respond to that?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Oh, there's language in the legislation to deal directly with ensuring that we don't have fraud again. We're using these organizations, the largest foundations, because they have mechanisms in place as well, checks and balances, to ensure that fraud doesn't happen. They've been doing this for years. They're currently doing it now. And we feel comfortable with the extra added language that we'll put in to address and ensure that there's not fraud, that we can get these resources out to the businesses that have been harmed and that need the money.

KELLY GORDON: OK, what's next for your bill here?

CEDRICK FRAZIER: What's next is we're in negotiations with our Republican colleagues. Myself and then Chair Xiong, who's also working on this, we're working on this together. We'll be meeting with our Republican colleagues, working through the process, trying to get to an agreement on what the final language looks like. And then we hope to get that out to the broader body and get it passed and get it to the governor's desk.

KELLY GORDON: OK. Thanks so much for taking the time to update us on your work.

CEDRICK FRAZIER: Yeah, thank you for having me.

KELLY GORDON: Yeah. That was DFL Representative Cedrick Frazier.