The Minneapolis tech community holds strong during ‘tense and difficult time’

The city’s tech scene is reeling as U.S. immigration agents have escalated their crackdown in Minneapolis, killing several people, including at least two U.S. citizens. 

Eight Minneapolis-based founders and investors told TechCrunch that they have put much of their work on hold and now spend their days focused on their communities, volunteering at churches, and helping buy food. It’s part of a grassroots effort, across race and class, that is seeing people speak out, donate money, protest, and offer emotional support to one another. 

“There’s a lot of commonality between how a teacher is reacting right now and how a tech professional is reacting,” Scott Burns, an investor in the area, told TechCrunch. He said people are “very fatigued.” Burns is going to church more often to help pack food to deliver to those too frightened 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 seen itself united in the last several weeks in the face of escalating violence from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

How can building a company remain a focal point when ICE agents appear to be everywhere, plainclothed and armed with military-grade weapons? Federal agents have been seen searching public transportation and prowling around workplaces. They are outside homes and in parking lots. They have been spotted circling schools. 

One Black founder, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect members of his staff, said he now carries his passport with him everywhere he goes. He is a U.S. citizen but has seen people of color throughout the city profiled and picked up by ICE and border patrol agents.

“People aren’t exaggerating how hard it has been. It’s hard to focus; it’s been a challenge just navigating even my team through it,” he said. 

He recalled a routine phone meeting with a colleague who suddenly fell silent. Lost for words, the colleague said she was watching 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 on her,” the founder said. 

Efraín Torres, a Latino founder, works from home, listening tentatively to the immigration raids that happen in his neighborhood. “You can’t not hear them,” he told TechCrunch. Cars will beep. Protestors whistle alerts. “And if you miss it, you’ll see signs saying, ‘My neighbor was taken by ICE.’” 

Officials even perform “citizen checks,” stopping people and asking them to prove immigration status — which the Supreme Court said last year can be done based on details like race or if a person has an “accent.” These checks have been conducted on people performing even mundane tasks, Torres said, like snow-blowing the lawn. He said he’s had a few run-ins himself with ICE, which is why he likes to stay low. 

“The line separating me from being a victim of assault is just a chance encounter,” he said, adding that he knew people who were followed by ICE — something others have reported is happening alongside raids. 

The Trump administration has escalated its immigration raids throughout the country, though the force deployed in the Twin Cities is especially 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 almost 3 to 1, Senator Amy Klobucharof Minnesota has said. 

The state is home to one of the largest populations of immigrants from Somalia, a group the administration has targeted before. That includes U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, who has sparred with President Trump. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has also seen himself targeted by the president, as has the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, who is also a Democrat. 

The surge in immigration enforcement is part of President Trump’s campaign promise to curb illegal immigration, though some argue that Trump has been specifically targeting cities and states that didn’t vote for him. More than 2,000 people have been arrested by ICE in Minnesota since Trump took office last January.

“It’s been difficult,” said one Black investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He, too, is a U.S. citizen and can trace his roots in the country back for a century. Still, living just outside the city, he carries his passport with him just in case. 

“Where I go to the gym, they’re in rural Minnesota,” he said, meaning agents aren’t only in the city. “It’s just been a strange time.”

Everyone is doing what they can, however, to help others. This investor, for example, works with founders in college, many of whom are immigrants. He buys them food so they don’t have to risk going to the grocery store themselves. He also tries to work from home, when possible, as do many of the other people TechCrunch spoke with. 

“It’s a tense and difficult time on the ground,” Mary Grove, another investor in the area, told TechCrunch.

Investor Reed Robinson, who has also been helping community members financially, said some of his founders with children have created a volunteer system to watch each other’s kids at school or daycare. It’s so common for ICE to detain the daycare staff, he said, adding that ICE agents frequently violate the law and court orders.

“It feels unnecessary, it feels intrusive, it feels like a violation of rights,” Robinson said about the immigration operation. 

Like Robinson, many people feel anger beneath the unease and fear.

The emotional toll makes it hard to build, investors and founders said. Torres, for example, said his company now has a no-ride-sharing-app policy. Some of his engineers are on H-1B visas (which the Trump administration has also attacked) and have reported being followed by immigration officials.

“Each time, it was three to four armed men in tactical outfits,” Torres said, adding that he and his wife have spoken about fleeing the state. “They’re inflicting trauma everywhere they go.” 

Grassroots efforts prevail as corporate leaders disappoint

The Minneapolis tech scene is still quite small, with companies raising just over $1 billion in the past few years. There are some notable companies in the ecosystem, such as the fintech Sezzle (now public), the clean water company Rorra, and the medtech Reema. There is an incredible history of innovation, Robinson said. “It’s not going to stop; we’re going to continue to do the work while we figure out this current situation.” 

The Twin Cities — Minneapolis and St. Paul — are the headquarters of some of the biggest American companies, such as Target, Optum, Best Buy, UnitedHealthGroup, and General Mills, to name a few. Some founders and investors criticized the leadership of these big companies, mainly for their vague responses to the chaos gripping the cities, even as many of their own employees are detained. 

“We haven’t had an adequate response,” one startup investor said. 

Sixty top executives from the state signed a statement that called for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” after ICE agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Large companies in the state have also come together to fund millions in grants through the Minneapolis Foundation for businesses impacted by the immigration operation. 

But compared to what is happening on a grassroots level, many founders and investors said these actions are not enough. A recent CNBC poll found that a third of the executives they polled have stayed silent because they didn’t find speaking out 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 demonstrate any kind of bravery, that’s really where it’s probably most disappointing,” Tim Herby, a local investor, told TechCrunch, calling the past two months heart-wrenching. 

Grove, the investor, said her team routinely checks in with others in the community, including her portfolio companies, to ensure they are doing well. She said people are helping each other pay rent, while restaurants are offering free meals. A local tech nonprofit, Minnestar, is set to host a community event to bring people together and discuss next steps. 

One Black investor said he found it ironic that today, the police are alongside many people in speaking out against the government, just a few years after people in the city were protesting against them after the murder of George Floyd. It’s a new day-to-day.

Another Black founder, meanwhile, said some of his white friends have started to drive him around the city for safety. He recalls one day sitting in a restaurant chatting with friends, when the television started giving live updates of ICE shooting another person. The mood fell somber, a reminder of how these raids have consumed every moment of life.

“I saw a friend yesterday,” he said. “It was the first time he left the house since New Year’s.”