The Minneapolis tech community holds strong during ‘tense and difficult time’ Dominic-Madori Davis 2:17 PM PST · February 3, 2026 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.
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“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 Klobuchar of 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.
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