The city’s tech scene is reeling as US immigration agents have stepped up their crackdown in Minneapolis, kill some peopleincluding at least two US citizens.
The eight Minneapolis-based founders and investors told TechCrunch that they have put many jobs on hold and now spend their days focusing on the community, volunteering at churches, and helping buy food. It’s part of a grassroots effort, across race and class, to see people speak out, donate money, protest, and offer emotional support to one another.
“There are a lot of similarities between how teachers react today and how tech professionals react,” Scott Burns, an investor in the area, told TechCrunch. He said people are “very tired.” Burns went to the church more often to help pack food to send to people who were too afraid to leave their homes. “It’s 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 crackdown has deeply disrupted their lives, describing a city that has united in recent weeks in the face of escalating violence from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
How to build a company remains a focal point when ICE agents seem to be everywhere, ordinary clothes and armed with military grade weapons? Federal agents have been seen searching public transportation and walking around the workplace. They are outside the house and in the parking lot. They have a visible mobile school.
One of Black’s founders, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his staff members, said he now carries his passport everywhere. He is a US citizen but has seen people of color across the city being profiled and picked up by ICE and border patrol agents.
“People are not exaggerating how hard it has been. It is hard to focus; it has been a challenge just navigating even my team through it,” he said.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
He remembers a routine phone meeting with a co-worker that suddenly went silent. At a loss for words, the friend said she watched ICE detain people in the neighborhood, the same as her mother.
“I had to turn off the phone and call my mom to make sure she had her passport,” the founder said.
Efraín Torres, the Latino founder, works from home, listening intently to the immigration attacks that are happening in his neighborhood. “You can’t hear them,” he told TechCrunch. The car will beep. Demonstrators whistle signals. “And if you miss it, you’ll see a sign that says, ‘My neighbor was taken by ICE.'”
Officials are even conducting “citizen checks,” stopping people and asking them to prove their immigration status — something the Supreme Court said last year could be done. based on details like race or if someone has an “accent”. The inspections are conducted for people who perform unusual tasks, Torres said, like blowing snow on the lawn. He said he’s had a few run-ins with ICE, so he’s very happy.
“The line that separates me from being a victim of a raid is just a chance encounter,” he said, adding that he knows the people ICE is pursuing — something others have reported happened alongside raids.
The Trump administration has stepped up its immigration crackdown across the country, though the force deployed in the Twin Cities is particularly large, with more than 3,000 federal agents sent to Minnesota as part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” ICE and border patrol agents now outnumber local police in Minneapolis almost 3 to 1, Senator Amy Klobucharof Minnesota has said.
The country has one of the largest immigrant populations from Somalia, a group the administration owns previous target. This includes US Representative Ilhan Omar, who has been sparring with President Trump. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has also seems to be targeted by the president, like the mayor of MinneapolisJacob Frey, who is also a Democrat.
The surge in immigration enforcement is part of President Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration, though some have argued that Trump has specifically targeted the city and argued that did not vote for him. More than 2,000 people have arrested by ICE in Minnesota since Trump took office last January.
“It has been difficult,” said one Black investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. They are also US citizens and can trace their origins in the country back a century. Still, living outside the city, he carries his passport if he has one.
“Where I go to the gym, they’re in rural Minnesota,” he said, meaning the agents aren’t just in the city. “It’s just a weird time.”
Everyone is doing what they can, but helping others. These investors, for example, work with founders in college, many of whom are immigrants. They buy food so they don’t have to risk going to the store themselves. He also tries to work from home, if possible, as he talked to TechCrunch.
“It’s a tense and difficult time on the ground,” Mary Grove, another investor in the region, told TechCrunch.
Investor Reed Robinson, who has also helped members of the community financially, said that some founders with children created a system of volunteers to watch the children at school or daycare. It’s common for ICE to detain daycare staff, he said, adding ICE agents often break 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 are angry because of discomfort and fear.
The emotional toll makes it difficult to build, investors and founders say. Torres, for example, said his company now has a no-ride-sharing-app policy. Some of their engineers have H-1B visas (which the Trump administration also attacked) and has reportedly been followed by immigration officials.
“Each time, there are three to four armed men in tactical clothing,” Torres said, adding that he and his wife had talked about fleeing the country. “They cause trauma everywhere.”
Grassroots efforts are winning because corporate leaders are disappointing
Minneapolis the tech scene is still quite smallwith the raising company only over $1 billion in the past few years. There are several important companies in the ecosystem, such as fintech Sezzle (now public), clean water company Rorra, and medtech Reema. There is a remarkable history of innovation, Robinson said. “It will not stop; we will continue to do our work as we understand the current situation.
Twin Cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul – is 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 criticized the leaders of the big company, especially because of the unclear response to the chaos that is happening in the cities, even because many of his own employees were detained.
“We haven’t had enough response yet,” said one early investor.
Sixty top executives from the country sign the statement who called for an “immediate escalation of tensions” after ICE agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti. The country’s big companies have also come together to fund millions through the Minneapolis Foundation for businesses affected by immigration operations.
But compared to what’s happening at the grassroots level, many founders and investors say that’s not enough. A new CNBC poll found that the third of the executive they polled remained silent because they did not find anything suitable for the business. Eighteen percent were worried about “backlash from the Trump administration,” while 9% said they were still thinking about how to respond.
“When you see the failure of public institutions to demonstrate any kind of courage, it can be disappointing,” said Tim Herby, a local investor, TechCrunch, in a call two months ago.
Grove, the investor, said his team regularly checks in with others in the community, including portfolio companies, to make sure they’re doing well. He said people were helping to pay the rent, while restaurants were offering free food. A local engineering The non-profit, Minnestar, is set to host community events to bring people together and discuss next steps.
One black investor said he thought it was ironic that today, the police were with so many people speak against the governmentonly a few years later the townspeople protested against them after the killing of George Floyd. It’s new every day.
Another Black founder, meanwhile, said some of his white friends have started to drive people around the city for safety. He remembers sitting in a restaurant one day talking with friends, when the television started giving live updates ICE picked up someone else. The mood is sad, a reminder of how the attack has ruined every moment of life.
“I saw a friend yesterday,” he said. “It’s the first time he’s been out of the house since New Years.”