Most people are not aware of this fact:
More than 1 out of every 5 workers in Minnesota are from ALANA communities.
Source: https://qwiexplorer.ces.census.gov/?s=137a19&st=MN&v=bar&fc=true&t=ac0&x=10&g=0
More than 1 in every 10 business in Minnesota are ALANA
Source: https://mn.gov/deed/data/economic-analysis/race-ethnicity/
Around 1 in every 5 dollars of all income generated in Minnesota are ALANA earnings.
Source: https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2024.S0201?q=population+profiles&t=005:009:031:102:400&g=040XX00US27
These are numbers from the US Census.
And if we add the value of ALANA workers’ lifetime earnings we will have a $1.4 trillion ALANA economy in Minnesota.
Two major actions are creating a culture of fear and uncertainty in ALANA workers, consumers and businesses that can have serious consequences for the Minnesotan economy – currently in a vulnerable stage with an ageing workforce and global competitive pressures.
Current ICE activity is casting fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities including citizens.
The dismantling of inclusive initiatives in the workplace and businesses are negatively impact native born Americans from the African American and Native American communities.
Immigration and workforce policy are not abstract national debates—they show up in daily life.
So the question before us is not whether immigration or workforce equity matters—the data is clear that they do. The real question is whether our current approach aligns with economic reality.
If ALANA workers suddenly disappeared from Minnesota –
Your trash won’t get picked up or recycled on time.
You’ll wait far longer for an Uber or a bus.
Customer service wait times will skyrocket.
Restaurants will shorten hours or close—because there’s no one to cook or serve the food.
Grandma won’t get the care she needs in the nursing home.
Emergency rooms and dental clinics will have longer delays.
After a storm, roof repairs will take months.
Your internet, email, AI chatbot and many professional services will be impacted
And your kids’ education will suffer as schools and colleges struggle to hire and retain staff.
If you think it’s hard to find workers—or a job—today, just imagine what Minnesota’s economy looks like if ALANA workers vanished and the Minnesotan economy is crippled in core sectors.
This isn’t speculation. It’s arithmetic.
I ran an economic simulation to quantify what ALANA workers actually mean to Minnesota’s economy. When you account not just for direct jobs, but for supply chains, consumer spending, and induced economic activity, ALANA workers support roughly $200 billion in economic output—about 40 percent of the state’s economy—and more than one million jobs and 24 billion in federal, state and local taxes. That’s the macro picture.
That’s the real scale of what’s at risk.
ALANA Minnesotans are also 11 percent of all businesses in the state—about one in ten. If fear and instability force even a portion of these businesses to close or contract, we’re talking about more than 100,000 jobs disappearing and roughly $5 billion in lost paychecks.
This is not about politics. It’s about how the economy actually works.
ALANA consumers have more than $50 billion in income or 1 in every dollars circulating in the economy is from an ALANA worker or business. That money doesn’t just vanish from ALANA communities—it ripples through every industry in Minnesota, from real estate and retail to healthcare, construction, and manufacturing.
For example, ALANA people own homes worth $76 billion and ALANA renters pay property owners more than $300 million in rent every month.
Facts from the latest Census data linked above.
The key point is this: ALANA workers are not a side story in Minnesota’s economy. They are core infrastructure.
What if we flipped the strategy?
Instead of leading with fear and disruption, what if we focused on stability, work authorization, workforce pathways, and fair access to opportunity—the tools that allow people to show up fully at work, invest in training, and plan for the future? What if we aligned immigration policy with labor market needs and paired it with workforce systems that support advancement for long-standing communities as well as newcomers?
Equally important, what if we changed the tone of the conversation?
What if we grounded our dialogue in the Idea of America—not as something fragile that must be defended from change, but as something strong enough to grow? Minnesota’s history shows that shared prosperity has always come from welcoming people into work, responsibility, and belonging.
Flipping the strategy does not mean ignoring the rule of law. It means pairing order with opportunity and enforcement with solutions that actually work.
We have a choice. We can continue down a path that increases uncertainty in a workforce we depend on—or we can choose policies and conversations that stabilize the economy and secure Minnesota’s future.
The data points clearly toward the second path.
