Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez released a staff report alleging that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies are harming immigrant entrepreneurs and destabilizing Main Street economies. The report claims that aggressive ICE raids and mass detentions are deterring customers, removing business owners and workers, and limiting access to capital.
The report, titled The Dying American Dream and the Trump Administration, Part I: Immigrant Entrepreneurs, outlines five key impacts: business closures, sales declines, workforce disruptions, capital withdrawal, and increased hate-motivated harassment. It also criticizes the administration’s $88 billion annual immigration enforcement budget as a misallocation of taxpayer funds.
The press release does not cite agency data or oversight findings but frames the enforcement strategy as economically destructive and socially destabilizing. The report is the first in a planned series examining the administration’s impact on small business communities.