February 3, 2026
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We write to express our outrage and alarm regarding recent federal immigration enforcement activities and their consequences. Each of us has deep concerns about the human toll, the climate of fear, and the violence and death accompanying these operations.
This letter, however, focuses squarely on the economic and fiscal damage these actions could inflict on the states and communities we are entrusted to steward.
The economy fundamentally depends on people producing goods, providing services, and participating in commerce as workers, consumers, and business owners. For an economy to function, people must feel safe to go to work, operate businesses, travel to commercial districts, and engage in everyday economic activity. When fear disrupts these basic conditions, production slows, consumption declines, and the economic system that supports public
revenues begins to break down.
Our responsibilities require us to safeguard state fiscal health, manage public funds prudently, and ensure the economic stability our budgets depend upon. The enforcement operations currently underway across multiple states threaten to produce economic harm that directly undermine these obligations.
Recent enforcement activities in Minnesota sharpen our concerns, as they have caused disruption to daily economic life. Business leaders have expressed concern about the impacts of such actions on their workforces and operations. If economic activity is interrupted and uncertainty spreads through local markets, state and local governments will feel the effects through reduced revenue, instability in employment-related tax receipts, and added strain on public resources.
The cumulative effect would be lost productivity, diminished economic output, and weakened fiscal indicators that directly affect state creditworthiness, borrowing costs, and long-term financial planning.
While we recognize the federal government's authority over immigration enforcement, that authority must be exercised without destabilizing our state and local economies or the economic foundations of our governments. Many of our states already send more tax dollars to Washington than we receive in federal support. We are now expected to absorb the fiscal consequences of enforcement activities. This is not acceptable.
We close by reiterating our outrage and alarm about the consequences of these enforcement actions. We are deeply troubled by the fear, violence, and loss of life they have produced. As fiscal officers, we cannot ignore the economic damage that will flow directly from that fear. When people do not feel safe to work, to operate businesses, or to participate in daily economic life, our economies suffer and the governments serving them are weakened.
We urge your administration to immediately scale back enforcement activities causing this harm and to ensure the economic stability our communities require.
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