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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday he’ll back an aid package to support state businesses, especially immigrant-owned business, hurt by the surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota over the past two months.

Walz told reporters he’ll propose a $10 million emergency fund, similar to an effort during the COVID-19 pandemic, that would offer forgivable loans targeted at small businesses.

Gov. Tim Walz talks end to ICE surge, backs $10M aid package for Minnesota small businesses hurt

The upcoming legislative session, he added, “needs to be about the recovery of the damage” caused by the immigration surge. He called on the federal government “to pay for what they broke here” but added that he wasn’t “holding his breath” for federal help.

Walz said he was “cautiously optimistic that this surge of untrained, aggressive federal agents are going to leave Minnesota” after hearing remarks earlier Thursday from White House border czar Tom Homan. 

Walz, though, added that the surge “left us with deep damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases. They left us with many unanswered questions.”

The federal government brought some 3,000 agents into the state over the past two months, largely in the Twin Cities. The governor said he expected a return to the normal contingent of agents in the state, about 150, by the middle of next week.

He also said he still expected that the investigations into the 

fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by immigration agents

 will continue despite the surge’s end. 

The federal government has said it’s opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing and will also cooperate with state investigators on a joint probe of the shooting. 

Local prosecutors have also said they’ll review for any possible state charges. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement later in the day that the end of the surge will not affect her office’s ongoing investigations.

“It’s going to be a long road,” Walz said of the process to move forward following the surge. “But Minnesotans are decent, caring loving neighbors and they are also some of the toughest damn people you’ll ever find, and were in this for as long as it takes.”

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The latest on ICE in Minnesota

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Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday he was “cautiously optimistic” all the federal immigration agents who came during the surge will be gone by midweek next week. He said the surge left Minnesota with “generational trauma” and “economic ruin in some cases.”

A man speaks to Gov. Tim Walz and others in a commercial kitchen.

Walz backs $10M aid package for Minnesota small businesses hurt by ICE surge

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