The snowflake symphony from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is hitting notes that would make even the most tone-deaf leftist cringe. Here we are in early February 2026, with ICE finally doing its job under the Trump-Vance hammer, rounding up criminal aliens in the Twin Cities as part of Operation Metro Surge. And what does Frey do? He bellyaches that this “massive ICE presence” is “devastating small businesses” and “horrible for Minneapolis businesses,” insisting we “need ICE to leave so our economy can get reignited.” Yeah, right—like the city’s economy was some roaring engine before the feds showed up to clean house. Frey’s been on this tear since January, calling the enforcement a “siege” that’s “catastrophic for our businesses and residents,” even as customer-facing spots report revenue drops of 50-80 percent because folks are scared to show their faces amid the crackdown. But let’s call it what it is: Frey’s not mourning lost profits; he’s defending a house of cards built on illegal aliens, rampant fraud, and sanctuary stupidity that’s been bleeding the city dry for years.
Mayor Frey has encouraged protests against immigration enforcement but blames the government on the economic impact: “I’m sitting at my desk here and just got some really sobering figures about the impact that this operation, [ICE’s] Metro Surge, is having on our communities.”
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) February 4, 2026
The Mayor’s Meltdown: Begging ICE to Bail on Border Basics
Frey’s latest sob story dropped on February 3, 2026, in a Facebook rant where he painted ICE as the big bad wolf terrorizing neighborhoods and tearing families apart—classic leftist deflection. But the real meat? He claims the feds are nuking the local economy, with businesses shuttering and revenues tanking because of the “fear” from enforcement ops that kicked off in December 2025. By January 12, 2026, Frey was already suing alongside the state AG and St. Paul to halt the surge, whining that it’s diverting local cops, straining emergency services, locking down schools, and forcing shops to close. He echoed this in a February 2 interview, dismissing promises to scale back ICE as “I’ll believe it when I see it,” while demanding a full drawdown from the 2,000-plus agents still on the ground.
This isn’t leadership; it’s lunacy. Frey’s been a sanctuary cheerleader since day one, bragging that Minneapolis won’t enforce federal immigration law because “that’s not our job.” His city’s ordinances even ban using city lots for ICE ops, turning the place into a magnet for every crook and freeloader gaming the system. Now, with arrests hitting 3,000 by late January—including murderers, rapists, and gangbangers—he’s shocked that actual law enforcement is disrupting the status quo? Polls show 68 percent of Americans back stricter controls, but Frey’s too busy virtue-signaling to notice. His “productive” chats with the White House? Just more hot air, as he doubles down on demands for state-led probes into shootings like the January 8 self-defense takedown of Renee Good and the January 24 incident with Alex Pretti. Bottom line: Frey’s statement isn’t about economics; it’s a desperate plea to keep the sanctuary scam rolling, even as it craters his city.
Mayor Jacob Frey SLAMS ICE for causing Somali businesses in Minneapolis to lose over 50% of their income..
Not one mention of the rampant fraud in his city. pic.twitter.com/6eq8sJtUfl
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) February 3, 2026
Minneapolis Money Myths: A “Booming” Economy Built on Borrowed Time and Bogus Bucks
Peel back the curtain on Minneapolis’ so-called economy, and you’ll see a facade propped up by cheap labor and unchecked inflows. As of 2025, the city’s unemployment hovered around 3.0 percent—tight, sure, but masking deeper rot. Total employment in the broader Minnesota labor force hit about 3.1 million, with key sectors like manufacturing, construction, hospitality, and health care driving the bus. But here’s the ugly truth: Payroll jobs rose by just 584,000 in 2025, averaging a measly 49,000 monthly gains—down from 2 million in 2024. The back half of 2025? Zero net jobs, with unemployment ticking up as deportations trimmed the fat.
Businesses? Small ones on Lake Street in the Latino-heavy south side are the canaries in this coal mine, with mom-and-pops in food services and retail slamming doors amid the surge. Foot traffic’s evaporated, sales plunged, and the vibe’s gone from vibrant to vacant. Larger corps stay mum, but the hit’s real—construction and restaurants added jobs last month, yet sectors reliant on immigrant labor are flatlining. Overall, Minnesota’s GDP growth? Stunted by policies that prioritize aliens over Americans. Immigrant households generate $2.2 billion in annual income statewide, with $1.7 billion in spending power, but that’s no boon when it’s undercut by the costs. Undocumented folks hold 3.5 percent of jobs in accommodation and food services, 3.6 percent in arts and entertainment, 3.5 percent in construction, 2.5 percent in manufacturing—numbers that sound small but balloon when you factor in the ripple effects. In southern Minnesota alone, undocumented Latinos pump out $6.5 billion to $9.3 billion in economic output, creating eight jobs for every 10 they take. But from an America First lens, this “contribution” is code for exploitation, suppressing wages for natives and inflating a bubble ready to pop.
Alien Avalanche: How Illegals and Fraud Are Gutting the Gopher State’s Gains
Now, the elephant in the room—or should I say the horde at the border? Minnesota’s got an estimated 95,000 undocumented immigrants, with 70,000 in the labor force as of 2022, making up 2.2 percent overall but punching above their weight in grunt-work industries. Agriculture? 13 percent immigrant-driven. Manufacturing? 16 percent. Construction? 10 percent. These folks pay $222 million in state and local taxes yearly, plus $500 million total, but that’s chump change against the drain. Deporting all 95,000 would axe 8,000 jobs for U.S.-born workers—not because they’re irreplaceable, but because the system’s addicted to cheap, off-the-books labor that undercuts Americans. Knock out 32,500, and 3,000 native jobs vanish, per the math. In Minneapolis, the surge has already disrupted everything: schools remote, businesses boarded, economic activity in immigrant hoods like Little Village-style spots in freefall.
But the real killer? Fraud. Minnesota’s been a fraud factory, with scandals like Feeding Our Future siphoning billions from COVID-era child nutrition programs between 2020 and 2022. By late 2025, feds charged 98 folks, 85 Somali-descended, in schemes that could top $9 billion in Medicaid rip-offs. This isn’t petty theft; it’s systemic looting, enabled by sanctuary policies that shield criminals and encourage abuse. DHS surged in December 2025 partly to root this out, arresting over 1,500 “crooks and creeps” by early January 2026. Yet Frey’s crew released nearly 470 criminal aliens back into the streets, ignoring 1,300-plus ICE detainers. Sanctuary defiance means repeat offenders roam free, jacking up crime and costs—welfare fraud alone has swamped the system, with investigations revealing diaspora-driven schemes that make Minnesota a laughingstock.
The impact? Pure poison. Illegal aliens distort the market, holding down wages in blue-collar gigs while fraud bleeds taxpayers dry. Deportations in 2025 cut the population by 600,000-1.1 million nationwide, keeping migrant-dependent sectors stagnant—no boom for natives yet, but the cleanup’s exposing the rot. In Minneapolis, Operation Metro Surge—3,000 arrests by late January—has schools locked down, businesses hurting, but that’s the price of years of open-arms idiocy. Frey’s economy isn’t “hurt” by ICE; it’s hooked on the very poison the feds are purging. Time to sober up, Mayor—America First means putting citizens before cheats, and your sanctuary circus is finally getting the boot it deserves.