Feature image for Immigration & Human Rights

Immigration & Human Rights

Immigration law has recently become the top priority for the Latino community. The Council is aware that much of immigration law constitutionally has to come from the federal government, there is still laws and policies that can derive from the state. We will review all legislation that targets immigrants and assess the impact it will have on the Minnesota Latino community.

The Council will strongly support immigration legislation and policies that are humane, nondiscriminatory, and consistent with America’s longstanding values of inclusion. Additionally, it promotes awareness around the contributions of immigrants to the state’s economy, culture, and society to ensure that Minnesota is a welcoming state with a future of strength and economic competitiveness residing in its vibrant and diverse social capital.

The Council supports fair and just immigration measures that:

  • Respect the human and civil rights of immigrants and their families.
  • Recognize present and future contributions of immigrants to the state’s economy and vitality.
  • Procure an integration pipeline to ensure equitable access to education, health care, and English language and civic classes. 
  • Prioritize family reunification.
To: Minnesota State and Local Public Officials
Date: December 19, 2025
 
Minnesota Must Protect Immigrant and Refugee Communities
The strength of a democratic society is reflected in its commitment to protect people from harm, persecution, and arbitrary power. Following World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights articulated this global resolve to ensure that public policy would be guided by dignity, equality, and the rule of law.
 
Minnesota must hold fast to this principle now more than ever. The Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage, Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs, and Minnesota Council on LGBTQIA2S+ urge Minnesota’s public leaders to use their authority and resources to counter harmful rhetoric and enforcement practices and to defend the rights, safety, and well-being of the state’s immigrant and refugee communities.
 
Immigrants and refugees are integral to Minnesota’s social, cultural, and economic vitality. Immigrants, including those with refugee status, contribute approximately $26 billion to Minnesota’s economy annually and pay an estimated $6 billion in state and local taxes. They have accounted for 94 percent of Minnesota’s population growth and 60 percent of labor force growth. Immigrants are essential to the state’s future—as workers, business owners, taxpayers, neighbors, and community members.
 
Policies and actions that intimidate immigrants, criminalize their presence, or target communities based on race, culture, faith, gender, language, nationality, or sexuality are incompatible with Minnesota’s values. When residents are afraid to buy food, seek medical care, bring their children to school, or simply go about their daily lives, the well-being of all Minnesotans is harmed.
 
Throughout 2025, immigrants and allies have warned about the increasing threat of racialized narratives and overzealous enforcement on civil liberties. Minnesotans are now reporting direct and sustained attacks on their communities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with words like “abduction,” “kidnapping,” and “terror” used to describe these experiences.
 
Community members and legal advocates criticize federal immigration policies as dangerous. The federal government responds to these concerns by stating its goal is to deport criminals. Yet, immigrants know they are primary targets of a mass deportation campaign not because of criminality but because of their identities as people of color. Abducting and deporting individuals prior to their immigration hearings is immoral and hypocritical. Eliminating asylum and other protections irrespective of the continued need for those protections (while extending them to beneficiaries of former apartheid regimes) is illogical and inhumane. Treating a community of tens of thousands for the unrelated acts of a few is flagrantly discriminatory.
 
These violations are not only moral and legal failures—they are also economic failures. Fear-based enforcement destabilizes Minnesota’s workforce, weakens small businesses, disrupts critical industries, and reduces consumer spending and tax revenue. The resulting economic harm extends well beyond immigrant communities and threatens the broader prosperity and fiscal stability of the state.
 
Minnesota leaders must do more. Minnesota cannot permit constitutional and human rights principles to be flipped on their head. There is a prevailing movement stripping back the rights of our neighbors, with the consequence of impacting us all.
 
For the sake of the well-being of this state, Minnesotans must resist this politics of bigotry in all its forms. Our Councils urge Minnesota’s local and state officials to defend and support Minnesota residents—especially those targeted for their culture, faith, heritage, or race—and calls for the following:
• Call on federal authorities to immediately cease enforcement tactics that rely on racial profiling, mass raids, and intimidation.
• Strengthen and enforce state and local policies that ensure all residents can access public services without fear.
• Reaffirm and clearly communicate boundaries between state and local services and federal immigration enforcement; and
• Support community partners in expanding access to legal resources, accurate information, and culturally responsive services.
Our communities of color are critical to the future prosperity and vibrancy of our state. State leaders must protect this future at all costs.