ICE Crackdown Is Impacting Minnesota’s Farms and Food System, Officials Say
January 15, 2026 | Source: Civil Eats | by Lisa Held
January 15, 2026 – The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation that has roiled Minneapolis and led to the shooting death of Renee Good is also impacting farms and food businesses across Minnesota, according to legislators, government officials, and farmers.
“ICE is terrorizing our communities, including our farm communities,” Angie Craig (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, said at a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday morning. “They are not just in the Twin Cities. They are everywhere.” Craig said one Minnesota dairy farmer had reached out to her about his workers not wanting to come in because agents were waiting near the farm.
At a separate press conference hosted by state legislators at the state capitol on Wednesday, state Senator Aric Putnam, a Democrat, said he had received reports that the state’s guest farmworkers, who have legal status through the H-2A program, are afraid to go to work. “We are actually in our communities, unlike Kristi Noem,” Putnam said. “We’re in our communities and we know what’s going on in them.”