Our coalitions, Equity in Place and Business Resource Collective, both submitted testimony to the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Impact on Minnesotans and Economic Stability. Read our testimonies below, and watch video of the hearing featuring powerful testimonies from across Minnesota.

Equity in Place testimony

January 27, 2026

To the Members of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Impact on Minnesotans and Economic Stability,

Equity in Place is a coalition of organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color organizing for racial justice in Minnesota’s housing system. From community-based and renter advocacy organizations to nonprofit housing providers, all of our member organizations are witnessing firsthand the disastrous economic chain reaction from the federal occupation of our state. We know the urgency folks are facing as February 1st fast approaches, and that we need an immediate Eviction Moratorium and Emergency Rental Assistance. 

Minnesotans – whether citizens, refugees, or immigrants– are facing extreme risk when leaving their homes to get groceries, pay bills, or open their businesses. Tens of thousands of families are unable to get to work safely to earn money to make rent. Local businesses are closing, and cultural corridors are empty. Public transit riders can’t get to work for fear of being abducted based on the color of their skin. Our children cannot safely access school or healthcare. 

Less than a week ago, our neighbor Alex Pretti was publicly executed by Border Patrol agents in front of one of our member organizations’ offices, in the heart of Nicollet’s Eat Street, a vibrant, immigrant-driven cultural and economic hub. Restaurants and local businesses up and down that cultural corridor have come together to provide medical aid, food, shelter, and space to mourn– because this is a cultural corridor with beloved anchor institutions who take care of our people. We need the state of Minnesota to step up and do the same. The ripple effect these corridors will face from the potential of businesses closing will be detrimental to families’ abilities to continue to live in neighborhoods where they can shop, work, and be a larger part of the future of these vibrant corridors. 

We’re a housing coalition. The ICE attack on our state is a housing issue, one that our communities know firsthand, and how these issues intersect in our lives. So we are seeing that the impacts of this occupation have disrupted all aspects of daily economic life, including being able to go to work and earn rent. As families speak out on the urgent need to shelter in place, we need an immediate eviction moratorium to keep families in their homes and evict ICE, not us. We also demand emergency rental assistance from local governments, counties and the state to prevent a tsunami of evictions of vulnerable residents with no place to go. Without these protections, families will be forced to determine whether they risk going to court to fight their case and be apprehended by ICE, or become homeless and be punished with a tainted eviction record. 

All of this could end immediately if ICE leaves. Minnesotan immigrants are hard-working, entrepreneurs, and drivers of our economy. We want to get back to work, stay in our homes, and continue to make Minnesota the unique and beautiful place it is. We must do everything in our power as a state to keep Minnesotans safe until this occupation ends. 

Thank you, 

Juan Luis Rivera-Reyes – Coalition Organizer at Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Equity in Place Coalition Members:

African Career Education and Resource (ACER)

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Ain Dah Yung Center

Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of MN

Community Stabilization Project

COPAL

Harrison Neighborhood Association

HOME Line

Hope Community

Housing in Action

Housing Justice Center

Jewish Community Action

Minnesota Consortium of Community Developers

MN STEP (Standing Together to End Poverty)

Native American Community Development Institute

New American Development Center

Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association

Pueblos de Lucha y Esperanza MN

West Side Community Organization

Business Resource Collective testimony

January 28, 2026

To the Members of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Impact on Minnesotans and Economic Stability,

Thank you for taking time to hear out your local Business Resource Collective (BRC). We are a partnership of over 20 technical assistance providers and support organizations across the Twin Cities that center BIPOC and immigrant-owned small businesses. 

Minnesotans—whether citizens, refugees, or immigrants—are facing extreme risk simply by leaving their homes. People are afraid to go to work, to open their businesses, to ride public transit, to buy groceries, or to take their children to school. Tens of thousands of families cannot safely earn income to pay rent, either for their homes or their businesses. Small businesses are closing. Cultural corridors are empty. Entire neighborhoods are being destabilized by fear, violence, and economic interruption.

Community care alone cannot withstand this level of systemic harm. Less than a week ago, our neighbor, Alex Pretti, was killed by Border Patrol agents in front of one of our member organizations’ offices, in the heart of Nicollet’s Eat Street. This is one of Minnesota’s most vibrant, immigrant-driven cultural and economic corridors. In response to his murder, nearby restaurants and small businesses have come together to provide medical aid, food, shelter, and space to grieve. These businesses are not just storefronts; they are anchor institutions that take care of their people. When we lose these institutions, we lose our economic stability with them. 

We are here today because our communities are in an emergency. This emergency ends when ICE leaves Minnesota. Until they do, we must act now by (1) providing emergency economic relief for impacted small businesses (proven successful at not only temporary relief for small businesses, but long term prosperity and growth)¹, (2) immediately implementing a statewide eviction moratorium for both residential and commercial tenants, and (3) voting NO on funding the Department of Homeland Security Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Without immediate tenant protections and emergency economic relief, the impact on the Twin Cities will be devastating. When small businesses are displaced, families are displaced. When cultural corridors collapse, communities lose jobs, access to goods and services, cultural identity, and pathways to generational stability. Once these businesses are gone, they do not return—and neither do the families who depend on them.

Failing to act now will permanently alter the economic and cultural fabric of our region. Tenant protections and economic relief are not optional. They are essential tools to prevent irreversible harm to Minnesota’s communities, workforce, and economy during an active emergency. Please see the Minneapolis Foundation as a strong inspiration, as they have partnered with Minnesota’s largest corporations to lead by example in funding $3.5m in grant dollars for those small businesses harmed by the occupation of ICE.² The cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of intervention.

We insist the committee act with urgency and courage—to protect small businesses, stabilize families, and preserve the cultural corridors that make our communities whole.

Thank you for your time and consideration, 

Charlie Barba

Coalition Organizer for The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

charlie@thealliancetc.org