Lack of legislation to support immigrants post-surge leaves 'dire' situation

State lawmakers are officially on break after a busy session. Among the key issues this year at the Capitol: addressing the economic impacts of the surge of federal immigration agents.

Several proposals were introduced, including legislation to establish a $100 million relief fund for businesses that may have lost revenue or faced other difficulties due to the surge. Gov. Tim Walz also put forth a $10 million relief package in February.

Both proposals did not pass.

Aaron Sepulveda is legislative and policy director with the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs. He’s been talking to businesses across the state and he told MPR News more about where things go from here.

The following was edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

What was your reaction to neither effort passing?

I think the general sentiment that we hear from our community members is one of disappointment.

The impacts of federal immigration actions to our business community — while not completely and entirely understood because they're very much ongoing and will be ongoing for some time — based on what we know so far, have been drastic, devastating, really.

There was a survey by the University of California, San Diego, U.S. Immigration Policy Center, in which they estimated between the Twin Cities — Minneapolis and St. Paul, specifically — during immigration actions in January and February, businesses lost something like $600 million in revenue.

It’s a huge, tremendous loss in areas that are major sources of vitality in our urban centers — not just in the Twin Cities, though that's what those economic reports estimated, but in greater Minnesota as well.

What was your reaction to bills that would place more checks on federal agents not passing?

A very similar sort of sense from community members that we speak with and talk with — that there was a missed moment.

Immigration items related to how immigrants are perceived and the policies that they interact with, those aren't usually high discussion matters or moments of import for the state Legislature.

This year, we saw the really practical impacts that strong immigration legislation could have in defending the well-being of immigrant communities. A lot of immigrant communities came out and spoke in favor of that legislation directly and how it would impact their lives. Unfortunately, those testimonies weren't enough to compel legislators to act on those items.

So, what we're dealt with in response is this deficit of trust that we hear from a lot of community members, where the state government wasn't responsible for these actions in any way. But, a lack of action from state government to create a path for restitution where folks can feel comfortable and feel safer, and know exactly how far their safety goes, in which spaces — a lack of that creates a distance from the state.

Do you feel like there is enough community support to sustain the need or what is your sense for how great that need continues to be?

It's dire. I think, again, we’re not entirely certain what those impacts are because a lot of folks, they're able to borrow resources, they're able to continue to live on the margins of either profit or the margins of savings that they might have had.

But as those continue to be consumed in order to make up for either lost revenues or lost employment opportunities from earlier in the year towards the end of the year, I think we're really going to see some of these effects come into full force.

Ideally, hopefully, none of these things happen. Thinking about already what can happen next legislative session, there remains opportunities to assist folks. But the reality is $600 million taken from our businesses over the course of a couple months just in Minneapolis and St. Paul, that gap has to be filled somewhere or else businesses will suffer.

Between now and when the next session starts next year, what other opportunities are you seeing to try to make space for more organized ways to give people assistance and continued relief?

One thing I would want to mention for listeners who are either business owners themselves or who might be friends or neighbors with business owners is that there still exists funds from some years ago.

The Promise Act was initially established to support businesses coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the events surrounding George Floyd's murder [but] folks can still apply to that.

There's no guarantees that immigration enforcement actions are a qualifying event that allows folks to receive from that fund. But, that money is there and it's important to talk about because every piece of available resource is needed at this time to ensure that as few businesses close, as many families can remain whole as possible.

In that same vein, we will continue to work with community organizations. Business support groups have been amazing in terms of both looking for donations, for gathering resources themselves and recommending those resources. So, we'll continue on that push.

And then, we'll also be working with community members to ensure that their stories continue to be told, particularly as the effects start being felt with the intention of addressing those and continuing to focus on those in the future — even if others' focus is elsewhere.

Was there anything from this session related to the ICE surge that passed that you were happy with?

There's some money that was allocated to rental assistance that is deeply needed. Again, not singularly in relation to Operation Metro Surge, but which will be deeply useful, particularly as simultaneously costs are escalating for a lot of folks and that might be borne by renters.

Beyond that, there's a number of other wins, which will protect our immigrant community's ability to access resources.

I think Hennepin County Medical Center is an amazing facility that our immigrant community really needs, and so, for that to be funded, that's amazing.

Of course, talking as I previously had about this idea of trust, do folks feel like they can interact with systems in the same way as before? That is yet to be proven but at least we still have that resource in our community that folks can leverage.

What are you seeing in terms of eviction repercussions from the surge?

Just about any place where people have needs, you need to have a house over your head, you need to have food, you need to have a job that can afford all these things.

All of these things were touched by Operation Metro Surge in really traumatic ways, where you saw the highest number of calls to rental crisis hotlines across the state that had been seen since the peak of the pandemic.

Those needs persist. Again, there's a lag time between what is currently happening — there's still a little bit of resources out there. Folks have been able to put off evictions. The city of Minneapolis, for example, was able to do some local policy to help do that.

But as we get closer to the end of the year, we will see the direct results of that in ways that we have not yet seen them.

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