One-third of business leaders say they’re not making a statement about Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, by immigration agents because it is “not relevant to their business,” a CNBC flash survey found.
While leaked internal messages from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke show some CEOs are commenting about ICE, many other executives remain undecided about the risks and benefits of making public comments. More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies signed a letter on Sunday urging “an immediate de-escalation of tensions,” but stopped short of demanding that ICE leave the state, while Democratic state officials, such as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have done so.
CNBC sent the survey to 550 C-suite executives on Monday and Thursday and received 34 responses. Only one of the respondents said their company had spoken publicly about Minneapolis, and more than 70% of respondents said they do business, have offices, or have remote employees in Minnesota.
Nearly 20% of respondents said they are “worried about backlash from the Trump administration,” and 9% said they are “still contemplating” speaking out. About a quarter of respondents said they were “not sure” about their reasons for not commenting on the issue.
