ICE crackdown chills sales at immigrant-owned businesses

At Quruxlow Restaurant on Lake Street in Minneapolis, only a portion of the dining space is being used because of a drop-off in customers. Business at the African restaurant is also roughly half of what it was before this month’s ICE crackdown, according to the restaurant’s manager.

The restaurant is just one immigrant-owned business seeing a decline in sales and foot traffic this month. Abdi, who asked to only use his first name because of retribution fears, says many reliable customers are afraid to be seen in public as federal immigration authorities continue to confront and arrest people.

Some businesses are locking doors to avoid enforcement. Others are seeing employees avoid work. Five Quruxlow employees are too afraid to come to work despite having green cards, its owner said.

“Everybody’s scared. They will not be in until all this goes away,” Abdi said.

As the immigration enforcement continues — and amid concerns from critics that it will soon escalate — community members are stepping up their spending to help the businesses. St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community recently expanded its “Welcome the Stranger Program.” Dozens of parishioners now intentionally eat breakfast at immigrant-owned restaurants like Quruxlow.

“Our goal is to send a message and to support them in any way we can, “said Joel Racchini, who is helping organize the efforts. “The [Trump] administration may not, but your local community members do value you.”

Federal officials say the fears are misplaced, arguing that immigration enforcement is aimed at arresting and deporting criminals.

Some business owners say the enforcement is going beyond finding undocumented people.

Ghita Worcester, CEO of Hoyo Sambusas, said two adult children of her American employees were recently questioned by ICE while grocery shopping.

One was stopped and questioned at the Target parking lot in south Minneapolis, she said. The next week, the other was questioned as she got out of her car in a Walmart parking lot in Roseville.

The Minneapolis-born women, who are of Somali descent, recently shared their stories at Worcester’s workplace. They now carry their birth certificates with them wherever they go for fear they could be detained, Worcester said.

Roughly a mile and a half north of Quruxlow, people are still buying goat meat, rice, sambusa meat pies and mandazi fried bread at the Cairo Grill near Franklin and Chicago avenues.

That fear has hurt business, Hassan said, “so we need support.”

“ICE bothers you, whether you are the citizen or not. They are not looking at the documents of people. They look at their color,” he said.

While federal agents can stop people based on ethnicity, language, location and type of work when assessing reasonable suspicion, ICE officials dispute allegations that federal agents are racial profiling and said agents are only targeting people who have a reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally.

”What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity," McLaughlin said in a statement.

Federal officials said over the weekend that more than 670 people have been arrested in this month’s “Operation Metro Surge.” It’s difficult to determine who is being detained since the federal government is offering few specifics and their claims have not been verified.

But Basim Sabri, who owns the Somali-run Karmel Mall and the Plaza Mexico mall by Lake Street in Minneapolis, said the frequent presence of ICE in and around his properties has scared off customers and vendors.

At least 50% of vendors at Karmel Mall have stopped coming in since the crackdown, and at Plaza Mexico, it’s 95%, he said.

“They are not coming in to sell,” he said. “They just don’t want the hassle from ICE. They don’t want to deal with intimidation and interrogation. These people have passports.”

Sabri, a Palestinian who immigrated to Minnesota 45 years ago, said he’s seen other “wonderful Minnesotans” show up to try to fill the void of shoppers.

“Sunday, we had a group of 10 African Americans who came after church to shop, eat and support,” Sabri said. “They had never been here before, but want to help,” Sabri said.

Fearing immigration officers might barge in and scare workers, the restaurant owner started locking the door and only letting vetted customers in, Rasmussen said.

After being let in and told of the situation, Rasmussen tripled her order. She then went next door to a Mexican bakery and bought a large tres leches cake.

ICE’s actions are prompting fear and “squeezing the economic lifeblood out of Lake Street,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen also bought $2,000 worth of tamales to eat after Sunday services on Dec. 14 from a small Mexican shop and just ordered $2,000 worth of Somali sambusas for a coming Sunday.

Trinity’s parishioners followed her lead, buying $20,000 worth of food from Latino and Somali-owned businesses along Lake Street in Minneapolis during the last two weeks. Last week, about 100 Trinity families began buying and delivering groceries to Somali families too afraid to leave their homes.

Sabri said he appreciates the parents, school leaders and business owners who are protesting the enforcement action and have stepped up their spending.

“People who never knew are suddenly coming here to just show support,” Sabri said. “I don’t know their names. I know they’re standing outside with whistles, or they go inside to the open shops to eat or buy, just to show support. I shake their hands and I thank them.”