ICE surge drives St. Paul restaurants to cut hours

Several St. Paul–area restaurants and bars along key immigrant‑heavy corridors are closing on certain days or cutting back evening hours, with owners saying regulars have stopped coming out while ICE and Border Patrol vehicles cruise the streets. Managers describe empty dining rooms during times that were previously busy, staff losing shifts, and a sense that raids and street stops have turned normal business districts into something people are afraid to visit. Some operators told the paper they’re staying open only for daytime or lunchtime service, or shutting down entirely on nights when federal agents have been most visible, to avoid putting customers and workers in the middle of enforcement sweeps. The story fits a wider pattern that’s been playing out across the metro: immigrant‑serving groceries, child‑care centers and other small businesses reporting 50–75% drops in traffic since Operation Metro Surge began, even when most customers are citizens or legal residents. On social media, you’re seeing a split — immigrant communities calling this ‘terrorizing the neighborhood’ and pledging boycotts of chains seen as cooperating with ICE, while some law‑and‑order voices dismiss the closures as political theater — but the cash registers don’t lie: these places are bleeding revenue and cutting jobs because people are too scared to show up.