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Is that it? In the aftermath of the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce issued an open letter on Jan. 25, calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions in the city.
“In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future,” said the open letter signed by more than 60 executives.
That’s pretty weak tea. How about something to the effect about condemning the killing of two American citizens who were gunned down by federal agents while exercising their first amendment right to protest.
What about criticism of the every day brutality exercised by the federal paramilitary forces that trample over the Constitution and assert the right to break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant?
The business leaders maintain that they are in close contract with the White House and Vice President.
Will they make make the case that America will not stand by silently and watch their country slide into authoritarianism? Probably not.
CEOs from 3M (William Brown), Best Buy (Corie Barry), Cargil (Brian Sikes), General Mills (Jeff Harmening), Land O'Lakes (Beth Ford), Target (Michael Fiddelke), UnitedHealth Group (Stephen Hemsley) and Hormel (Jeff Ettinger) signed the Minnesota's CoC letter.
Let’s hope their follow-up with Team Trump is more robust than their milquetoast letter.
Mea culpa….New York Congressman Tom Suozzi is one of seven Democrats who voted on Jan. 22 to approve $10B in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $18 billion for Customs and Border Protection.
Following the slaying of Pretti, Suozzi expressed regret over his vote. “I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis,” Suozzi posted on Jan. 25.“I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE’s unlawful behavior and I must do a better job demonstrating that.”
Suozzi, who represents a slice of Queens and Nassau County, said he voted for the bill because he didn’t want to shut down the government.
He also noted that ICE can ride out a government shutdown because its coffers are bulging with money from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bonkers Bill.
Suozzi co-chairs the House Problem Solvers Caucus. His ICE funding vote created a big problem for his constituents.
Punching over their weight…The Census Bureau reports that US population grew a measly 0.5 percent to 341.8M during the one-year period ended July 2026.
Trump’s immigration crackdown is fingered for the slowest population growth since 2021 when the country was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s good news for the White House’s Stephen Miller, who wants to build a moat around the US to bring immigration down to zero.
Thankfully, there’s a way to go before Miller’s zero tolerance for immigrants dream to come true.
Despite Trump’s war on immigrants, there were 1.3M net immigrants to the US for the year-ended July 2025, which was down from 2.7M in the 2024 period.
And the president faces PR pushback on his hard-nosed immigration policy from influential conservative news outlets such as the The Wall Street Journal, which champions legal immigration to compensate for the graying of America, and declining US birth dates.
“America will still need workers for all kinds of vital jobs—from health services, to plumbing and electrical repair, to building homes or working in biotech labs, noted the paper’s Jan. 28 editorial.
Jed Kolko, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, said immigrants make outsized contributions to the US economy through innovation and entrepreneurship.
When it comes to US economic growth, immigrants punch well over their weight class. Their input is what what made America great in the first place.
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