Manny González has run Manny’s Tortas, his Mexican sandwich booth inside Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, with his 68-year-old sister for more than 25 years. Since early December, four of his 10 employees have stopped showing up to work, out of fear they will be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, he says.
González, 65, is worried, too, he says. The trained chef, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico City in 1982, now carries his passport everywhere. His average monthly revenue is down roughly 50%, he estimates. He and his sister, who typically looks after the company’s books, are working 12-to-15-hour shifts on their feet making tortas to keep the business running while they’re short-staffed, he adds.
González says small-business owners in Minneapolis like him fear for their personal safety, their community’s safety and their companies’ survival as ICE agents flood the city. The U.S. federal government’s “Operation Metro Surge” brought thousands of ICE agents into Minneapolis beginning in December, and tensions between law enforcement and protesters escalated after two Americans — Renée Good and Alex Pretti — were killed by ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents in January.
