In an open letter from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, more than 60 CEOs from local companies that included 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Land O’Lakes, Target, Xcel Energy and UnitedHealth Group, called for “an immediate deescalation of tensions.” When I called around to several contacts in those companies yesterday, one executive told me, “These raids are terrorizing our community. We have to speak up without making things worse.”
Exhibit A: Target, which was once again the focus of angry protests after an employee, and U.S. citizen, was pulled out of a store during an immigration raid in Richfield, Minn. Last year, the company faced a backlash for rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
But Minnesota is just the most visible battleground right now. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, I heard a lot of comments about the relative silence of leaders. In a conversation with Scott Galloway, he described Europe as “Germany and the 26 dwarves” for not standing behind Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after his bold speech, which resulted in more threats of retaliation. At USA House, I asked a Republican executive about whether the clashes in Minnesota might impact celebrations around the 250th anniversary of the constitution. He admitted to being worried, saying “the goal is right, but we need to rethink the strategy to achieve it.”
In Silicon Valley, criticism of ICE tactics is mounting in the tech community. Ex-Meta chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, wrote “murderers” while posting footage on X. Venture capitalist John O’Farrell, previously of a16z, used the platform to criticize peers: “Wondering how the eager tech enablers of this regime, including some of my former VC friends and partners, are rationalizing this atrocity … Is all the crypto and AI money in the world really worth this?”
For a growing number of leaders on all sides of the political spectrum, the answer is no: The aggressive tactics on immigration have to stop.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zillman and Lee Clifford.
