'All I've been doing is crying': ICE's grip decimates Minneapolis' small businesses

As Minneapolis residents face clashes with federal immigration enforcement agents that have resulted in the killings of two people in the past month, small business owners like Shontay Evans say federal agents’ presence in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul is threatening their financial survival.

Citing declining sales in an atmosphere of fear and distrust, Evans, 41, said she was considering closing Tay’s Secret Garden, a plant nursery she has operated out of her home in St. Paul for seven years.

“Everybody's saving their money because they're scared,” Evans told Raw Story. “It's been pretty rough lately.”

Her experience, and those of other small business owners like her, point to the stress President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown is placing on entrepreneurs in Minneapolis-St. Paul and other urban areas, even as they struggle to cope with a national surge in the cost of living.

‘Stressed’

In Minneapolis on Jan. 7, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, as she drove her car away from an immigration raid in a residential neighborhood.

On Jan. 24, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for veterans who was filming a confrontation between protestors and federal agents.

Agents pepper sprayed Pretti before shoving him to the ground and firing at least 10 shots in five seconds.

Such traumatic events, as well as continued confrontations between agents and protestors, have left residents increasingly “stressed,” Evans said.

Amid it all, Evans said she “barely made anything” in sales for January.

As February began, the Department of Homeland Security said it was removing from Minneapolis 700 federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.

But 2,000 agents still remain on the ground.

‘Hit me hard’

Following the death of Good, Ronn Easton, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Little Canada, Minnesota, told Raw Story tension in the area was “palpable” — and reminiscent of the period of civil unrest in the Twin Cities that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.

Evans said such tension has led to public events across Minneapolis-St. Paul being canceled — cutting directly into her revenue.

Shontay Evans at a booth selling her plants through Tay's Secret Garden (provided photo)

Evans sells house plants locally, offering delivery and pick-up. She also teaches plant education.

“My business was already struggling, so it really hit me hard,” Evans said.

Ever since Trump returned to the White House last year and began sending the National Guard and federal agents to Democratic cities, people have been scared, Evans said.

Business has been “bad since Trump's been in office,” Evans added, noting that she recorded her worst year of sales in 2025.

Coffee shops, bookstores and bakeries across the Minneapolis area have reported struggling since Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to Time.

In a survey by tourism group Meet Minneapolis, 90 percent of businesses reported experiencing fear and stress from the presence of immigration agents, negatively affecting their businesses.’

Eighty percent of such businesses reported canceled, postponed or reduced bookings and sales, according to the survey.

‘Not right’

Despite the pressure on her business, Evans said she had been out to join protests at least five times, even in freezing temperatures.

She said she protested the day Pretti was killed and also attended protests at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, which is serving as an ICE command center.

Shontay Evans at a protest at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 21 (provided photo)

A friend gave her money to buy pizza and snacks for fellow protestors, Evans said.

“I was sitting at home watching it on TV, and it was just making me so sad,” Evans said.

“I'm like, ‘I gotta do something.’”

Evans recently spoke out in a video produced by Home of the Brave, a nonprofit highlighting what it calls the “catastrophic harm” to ordinary Americans under Trump’s second administration.

Nonetheless, Evans said she was growing discouraged, as she had seen “selective outrage” expressed by fellow residents while the federal government simply continued its aggression.

“I'm just over it because they [are] still gonna let people do whatever they want to do,” Evans said, of the federal government.

“No one's coming to help us. It's just really sad. All I've been doing is crying a lot lately, really.”

Evans said people should “get up and stand up … it's a humanity thing.”

Choking up, she added: “It’s just not right, what's going on out here.”