Ranking Member Markey: Trump’s ICE is a Disaster for America’s Main Streets

Markey Condemns Trump Immigration Tactics and Releases Comprehensive Impact Report, "Know Your Rights" Guide for Small Businesses

ICE Report (PDF)| Know Your Rights (PDF)

(Washington, March 12) - Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today condemned the Trump administration's cruel immigration tactics and released a comprehensive report detailing the harms to small business owners, workers, and consumers caused by the Trump administration's ICE raids in communities across the country. Ranking Member Markey also released a "Know Your Rights" guide for small businesses facing the threat of ICE raids.

"ICE's murderous actions on Main Street are a violent ploy by the Trump administration to bully and destroy the small businesses, workers, and hardworking families who are America's backbone," said Ranking Member Markey. "From Massachusetts to Minnesota, the heartbreaking stories of small business owners and communities point to the same conclusion: Trump's ICE must be defunded and abolished. We cannot agonize-we must organize and fight to dismantle Trump's federal fear campaign on America's Main Streets."

Main streets across the country were uprooted after ICE invaded businesses, homes, and communities. The City of Minneapolis estimated that January 2026 revenue losses for small, consumer-facing businesses could reach as high as $81 million because of ICE activity. In Orange County, California, a study by the UC Irvine School of Social Ecology found that businesses lost $58.9 million over just eight weeks following ICE raids in May 2025, with neighborhoods of high foreign-born concentration from Latin America experiencing spending declines of 20 to 25 percent.

In Ranking Member Markey's report, small business owners across the country gave firsthand accounts of the harm inflicted upon their businesses, workers, and members of their communities by Trump's ICE raids.

• "Everyone knows someone or multiple people affected by ICE raids. These people are following all of the instructions given to them, only to have the rug ripped out from under them. Kids aren't going to school and people aren't going to work because of their fears," said a small business owner in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
• "ICE is using my business as a hunting ground. They're swirling around the block waiting for people," said a small business owner in St. Paul, Minnesota.
• "Yesterday, I didn't make a single dollar. I've lived a long time in this country, but I've never seen anything like this," said a small business owner on Lake Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Other key highlights from Ranking Member Markey's report include:

• The Trump administration's mass deportation agenda is projected to reduce U.S. gross domestic product by more than 7 percent over the next three years-nearly double the economic damage inflicted during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. The campaign is estimated to cost taxpayers $88 billion per year.
• By the end of President Trump's second term, his mass deportation goals would result in 2.6 million fewer employed U.S.-born workers and wage decreases for all American workers, immigrant and native-born alike.

Ranking Member Markey has fought hard to protect immigrant communities and small businesses from the onslaught of harmful policies imposed by the Trump administration.

• Last month, Ranking Member Markey announced the introduction of the Small Business ICE Disruption Fund Act, which would provide grants to small businesses that have been impacted by the Trump administration's violent immigration enforcement actions on Main Streets across the United States.
• Also in February, Ranking Member Markey, Ranking Member Velázquez, and other house leaders sent a letter to Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler condemning the agency's new policy that bars legal permanent residents from receiving SBA loans.
• Earlier in February, Ranking Members Markey and Velázquez released a statement condemning the actions of the SBA after it announced that small businesses with legal permanent residents will be barred from receiving SBA loans.
• In December, Ranking Member Markey and all Democratic members of the Senate Small Business Committee sent a letter to the SBA reiterating concerns with the citizenship requirements and highlighting a drop in SBA lending volume. Despite documented concerns from SBA lenders and borrowers about the citizenship requirements, SBA has not responded to the letter.
• In September, Ranking Member Markey heard directly from SBA lenders about the issues with the citizenship verification requirements.
• In July, Ranking Members Markey and Velázquez sent a letter to the SBA expressing serious concerns with the agency's new, draconian citizenship verification requirements that require small businesses seeking SBA loans to be 100% owned by U.S. citizens, nationals, and legal permanent residents. SBA has not responded to the letter.