US Republicans fear deportation raids have gone too far

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids have brought economic losses to cities and become an issue in the election campaign: some Republicans are already saying that deportations have “gone too far.” But according to an American TV network, ICE leadership has ordered agents to increase daily arrests by a thousand, returning to the original target of three thousand a day.

Minneapolis businesses have not recovered

Several months after the peak of the anti-immigration raids by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Daniel Hernandez’s business in Minneapolis has still not bounced back. Early this year, the parking lot at one of the stores in his Colonial Market chain became a well-known gathering place for agents, and customers, above all Spanish-speaking ones, began to avoid it. When the ICE operation targeting Minnesota and its largest city ended, Hernandez hoped for a revival, but it never came.

“We are barely, truly barely surviving,” Hernandez told the American TV network. He had to close one location in the heart of a Hispanic shopping district, even though he took out a mortgage to open it two years ago. According to him, revenue at his stores fell by 60 percent after the ICE operations.

He is not the only entrepreneur facing difficulties. According to the Minneapolis city hall, from last December through April of this year alone, the city’s economy lost $700 million (more than 15 billion crowns). Democratic mayor Jacob Frey considers that estimate conservative and is also convinced the city has not yet dealt with the consequences. City hall has helped some business owners, and Frey compares the situation to a natural disaster. “But usually disasters aren’t created by the government itself,” he noted.

The economy: a “local recession”

Other American cities are also feeling the economic effect of the raids. A study by University of Pennsylvania professor Zeke Hernandez (no relation to the entrepreneur) showed that where immigration raids took place in 2025, foot traffic fell by three percent and people spend more than six percent less.

In total, he says, the raids have cost the economy billions of dollars. “In the affected areas, you’re creating recession-like conditions. It’s a kind of local recession,” he said.

This is one reason why the raids against migrants have become one of the themes of the campaign ahead of the November elections to the House of Representatives, the Senate and various state and local bodies. Even some Republicans have begun to back away on the migration policy of President Donald Trump.

The government wants a tougher line

Despite this, the federal government appears determined to get tougher. According to an American broadcaster, ICE leadership has ordered agents across the country to raise the daily number of arrested migrants by a thousand. The authorities are returning to the original target of three thousand a day, although the figure had recently been two thousand.

Arrest numbers are already rising: in August the authorities set a new record, with ICE taking 51,000 people into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security again denied the existence of any arrest quotas, although information about such targets has appeared in the American media for years. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Markwayne Mullin, ICE has been strengthened to find, arrest and deport illegal invaders from the US by any lawful means,” the department said, adding that the results of the policy speak for themselves.

The administration also disputes the economic consequences of the raids. White House spokeswoman Laura Bies said that illegal migration has long threatened the “fiscal health” of the US, contributes to rising inflation and lowers the wages of American workers.

Republicans: just focus on criminals

The government is standing firm on its tough migration policy, although Republican politicians increasingly point to the harm. One of the most prominent examples is the recent appeal by Florida congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar. The politician, who represents a district that until recently was considered fairly solidly Republican, said in a video in front of the White House that the anti-immigration raids had “gone too far.”

She stressed that people who have not broken the law often end up in handcuffs, and spoke about it above all in connection with the expected drop in Republican support among Hispanic voters.

Since then, several Republican senators have also voiced discontent. “I have always said that the idea of mass deportations sends the wrong signal,” said John Cornyn, who lost a primary in Texas this year because President Trump backed his rival.

South Dakota senator Mike Rounds believes voters want the state to focus on migrants who commit crimes, rather than on all illegal immigrants. “Most Americans say we’re a nation of laws, but if so many people are here illegally, we’d better damn well make sure we focus on those who have broken our laws,” he said.

A growing number of Republican candidates are formulating their immigration policy this way, notes an American newspaper. As an example, it cites California congressman David Valadao, who says ICE should deal with “criminals, not those responsible for producing food for our nation.”

Texas representative Monica De La Cruz sharply rejected “open borders” at the Republican convention as far back as 2024, but this spring she tried to save a group of mariachi singers from arrest, and recently released a campaign video featuring the wife of an immigrant detained by ICE.

Tom Homan, who is in charge of border security in the Trump administration, rejects such objections. “Give me an example where we’ve gone too far. That’s a pretty bold statement,” he retorted in an interview with an American TV network, responding to Salazar’s words. According to him, the administration is deporting people who pose a threat first, but it does not stop there. “If you’re in the country illegally, you have a problem. You shouldn’t be here,” he added.

Voters are changing their minds about migration

Migration was one of the main issues that helped Donald Trump return to the White House. But according to a September poll by the Marist agency for a US public radio network and public television broadcaster, he has squandered his potential in this area.

More Americans think Democrats will handle migration better than Republicans: 41 percent versus 38. And this is despite the fact that Democrats in the campaign cannot agree, for example, on the future of ICE: whether to reform the agency or abolish it altogether.

Republican candidates in Minnesota are also distancing themselves from Trump’s immigration policy. Former police officer Aaron Paul is running for a seat in the state legislature in a Minneapolis suburb. His district is considered decisive: it is currently represented by a Democrat, but in the last election he won only by a small margin, and the neighboring districts are represented by Republicans.

When Paul canvasses voters, he is sometimes asked about immigration too, he admitted to a local newspaper. At a candidate forum in a local high school he himself called the federal intervention a “complete disaster” that left immigrant communities and local law enforcement in a “hopeless” situation. He tries to divert the party’s attention by pointing to the resistance of Minnesota’s Democratic politicians to federal agents, which got in the way of their work.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz