The city’s tech scene is reeling as US immigration agents escalated their crackdown in Minneapolis, killing several people, including at least two US citizens.
The eight Minneapolis-based founders and investors told TechCrunch that they put most of their work on hold and now spend their days focusing on their communities, volunteering at churches and helping buy food. It’s part of a grassroots effort, across race and class, of people speaking out, donating money, protesting and offering emotional support to each other.
“There’s a lot in common between how a teacher is reacting and how a tech professional is reacting,” Scott Burns, an investor in the field, told TechCrunch. He said people are “very tired”. Burns goes to church more often to help package food and deliver it to those too afraid to leave their homes. “It was like what happens after a natural disaster,” he said of the effort.
Burns and other members of the Minneapolis tech industry told TechCrunch that the immigration raids have been very disruptive to their lives, describing a city that has rallied in the past few weeks in the face of escalating violence by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
How can building society remain central when ICE agents seem to be everywhere, plainclothes and armed with military-grade weapons? Federal agents were seen searching public transportation and snooping around workplaces. They are outside houses and in parking lots. They were seen in the circulation of schools.
One Black founder, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his staff members, said he now carries his passport with him everywhere he goes. He’s an American citizen, but he’s seen people of color all over town being profiled and picked up by ICE and Border Patrol agents.
“People don’t exaggerate how hard it was. It’s hard to focus, it was a challenge just going through it and my team,” he said.
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He remembered a routine phone meeting with a colleague who had suddenly gone silent. A colleague was lost for words and said she watched ICE detain someone in the neighborhood, the same one his mother lived in.
“I had to get off the phone and call my mom to make sure she had her passport,” the founder said.
Efraín Torres, a Latino founder, works from home and eavesdrops on immigration raids happening in his neighborhood. “You can’t hear them,” he told TechCrunch. Cars will beep. Protesters whistle a warning. “And if you miss it, you’ll see signs saying, ‘My neighbor was captured by ICE.’
Officials are even conducting “citizenship checks,” stopping people and asking them to prove immigration status — which the Supreme Court ruled last year can be done based on details like race or if a person has an “accent.” Those checks were done on people performing even mundane tasks, Torres said, such as blowing snow off the lawn. He said he’s had a few problems with ICE himself, so he likes to keep a low profile.
“The line that separates me from being the victim of an attack is just a chance encounter,” he said, adding that he knows people who have been followed by ICE — something others have reported happens alongside the raids.
The Trump administration has escalated its immigration raids across the country, though the force deployed in the Twin Cities is particularly large, with more than 3,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota as part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” ICE and Border Patrol agents now outnumber local police in Minneapolis nearly 3 to 1, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobucharof said.
The state is home to one of the largest populations of immigrants from Somalia, a group the administration has targeted before. This includes U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has gone head-to-head with President Trump. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has also been targeted by the president, as has Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, also a Democrat.
The increase in immigration enforcement is part of President Trump’s campaign pledge to curb illegal immigration, though some say Trump is specifically targeting cities and states that didn’t vote for him. Since Trump took office last January, ICE has arrested more than 2,000 people in Minnesota.
“It was tough,” said one black investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He too is an American citizen and can trace his roots in the country back a century. Even though he lives just outside the city, he carries his passport with him just in case.
“Where I go to the gym is in rural Minnesota,” he said, implying the agents aren’t just in the city. “It was just a strange time.
However, everyone does what they can to help others. For example, this investor works with founders at a university, many of whom are immigrants. He buys them food so they don’t have to risk going to the grocery store alone. He also tries to work from home when possible, as do many other people TechCrunch spoke to.
“It’s a tense and difficult time,” Mary Grove, another investor in the space, told TechCrunch.
Investor Reed Robinson, who also helps community members financially, said some of his founders with children have created a volunteer system to babysit each other’s children at school or daycare. It’s so common for ICE to detain daycare workers, he said, adding that ICE agents often violate the law and court orders.
“It feels unnecessary, it feels intrusive, it feels like a violation of rights,” Robinson said of the immigration operation.
Like Robinson, many people feel anger beneath the restlessness and fear.
Investors and founders have said that the emotional myth makes it hard to build. For example, Torres said his company now has a no-driving and app-sharing policy. Some of its engineers hold H-1B visas (which the Trump administration has also cracked down on) and have reported being tracked by immigration officials.
“Every time it was three to four armed men in tactical gear,” Torres said, adding that he and his wife talked about fleeing the state. “They cause trauma everywhere they go.
Grassroots efforts prevail because corporate leaders fail
The Minneapolis tech scene is still relatively small, and companies have raised just over $1 billion in the past few years. There are several notable companies in the ecosystem, such as fintech Sezzle (now public), clean water company Rorra, and medtech Reema. There is an incredible history of innovation, Robinson said. “It won’t stop; we’ll continue to work until we figure out the current situation.”
Twin Cities—Minneapolis and St. Paul — home to some of America’s largest companies, such as Target, Optum, Best Buy, UnitedHealthGroup and General Mills, to name a few. Some founders and investors have criticized the management of these major companies, mainly for their vague responses to the chaos that has gripped the cities, even as many of their own employees are detained.
“We haven’t seen an adequate response,” said one early stage investor.
Sixty top state officials signed a statement calling for “immediate de-escalation” after ICE agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Major companies in the state have also come together to fund millions in grants for businesses affected by the immigration operation through the Minneapolis Foundation.
But compared to what’s happening at the local level, many founders and investors say these actions are not enough. A recent CNBC survey found that a third of executives they surveyed stayed silent because they didn’t find speaking up relevant to the business. Eighteen percent were worried about “backlash from the Trump administration,” while 9% said they were still figuring out how to respond.
“When you see the failure of community institutions to show any kind of bravery, that’s really where it’s probably the biggest disappointment,” local investor Tim Herby told TechCrunch, describing the past two months as heartbreaking.
Grove, the investor, said her team routinely checks in with others in the community, including her portfolio companies, to make sure they’re doing well. She said people help each other pay rent while restaurants offer free food. A local tech nonprofit, Minnestar, is set to host a community event to bring people together to discuss next steps.
One black investor said he found it ironic that today the police are on the side of many people speaking out against the government, just a few years after people in the city protested against them after the murder of George Floyd. It’s a new day after day.
Another Black founder, meanwhile, said some of his white friends started driving him around town for safety. He remembers sitting in a restaurant one day talking with friends when the TV started providing live updates on how ICE had shot another person. The mood darkened, a reminder of how these raids consumed every moment of life.
“I saw a friend yesterday,” he said. “It was the first time he had left the house since New Years.