How Minneapolis is tallying the cost of ICE; Report says small businesses lost up to $81M in January

Minneapolis is facing significant financial losses due to immigration enforcement operations, with a reported $200 million economic hit in January.

On Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey said that small businesses and restaurants in the city lost as much as $81 million in revenue. Minneapolis is home to over 1,200 restaurants and bars, not including other small businesses. To understand how these losses were calculated, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with Erik Hansen, the city’s Director of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED).

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“There’s a little bit of a squishiness to the number,” said Hansen when asked about tracking the financial impact on Tuesday, as the city was finalizing its preliminary impact report, which estimated Minneapolis small businesses collectively lost up to $81 million in January.

He said those calculations are based on conversations and a survey sent out a couple of weeks ago. Hansen explained that the survey was anonymous, with about 150 respondents as of Tuesday.

“It’s an anonymous poll. We have about 150 respondents to that so far, and we asked them questions about, like, what kind of impacts have you had since the beginning of the year? Can you attribute that to the Operation Metro Surge? And then, what have been the financial consequences?” said Hansen.

According to the preliminary impact report released on Friday, based on that survey and existing business summary and licensing data, the city could assume more than half — or 750 — restaurants and bars “…are experiencing major losses of $20,000 per week.” And the entire industry “…is likely experiencing a minimum loss of $15 million per week.”

The report said the city used a similar framework to add up losses for grocery, retail, entertainment, and more, concluding that “January 2026 revenue losses for small, consumer-facing businesses in Minneapolis could be as high as $81 million.”

“We are getting the best data we can, because we’ll never really, truly be able to quantify the impacts of the operation,” Hansen said.

The financial impact may be difficult to quantify, but it’s evident, especially on historically busy days. Paul Wu, owner of Jade Dynasty on West Lake Street, said, “Friday, for example, we normally do $20-25,000 a night, and we did $8,000. And that’s lucky.”

“It’s a big loss. We don’t make any money,” Wu added.

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Earlier this month, Gina Christ, owner of The Black Forest Inn, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, “It bottomed out after Christmas, right? It was, it was just like a trap door opened.”

Hansen said that current business financial aid proposals from state and city officials would make up for a drop in the bucket of need.

He also emphasized the broader impact on the community, stating, “What’s important for us at the city right now is to articulate what the true need is in the community. And it’s not just the businesses. It’s also household budgets [that] are being impacted. People have lost wages. They’re more insecure in their housing stability… And so as we’re looking at that, once we have a better scale of what the problem is, we can start to look at resources. And those resources won’t always be money.”

The city plans to continue tracking the impact and updating the numbers, according to the preliminary impact report.