A coalition of three organizations focused on the rights of immigrants, labor, and renters, hosted a mayoral forum with Minneapolis candidates on September 3. Seven questions directed to DeWayne Davis, Omar Fateh, and Jazz Hampton focused on public safety issues, housing concerns, and how to address immigrant and labor violations. Current mayor Jacob Frey declined to participate in the forum.

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos En la Lucha (aka CTUL) Action Fund, Unidos MN, and Renters for Political Transformation organized the event, which had an audience of roughly 200 people. Candidates fielded questions asked from seven residents about how the city should respond to federal immigration enforcement operations and how to better protect workers from exploitation in the construction industry. The discussion reflected concerns about public safety, labor rights, and the balance of power between city leadership and federal authorities.

This first story focuses on the two immigrant-related questions.

Wage Theft and Worker Protections

One Spanish-speaking woman shared her experience of labor exploitation and noted the fear of retaliation that prevents many workers from speaking out.

She indicated that after she contacted an employer about missing wages, he sent her a photo of her check with a gun lying next to it; she had a posterboard showing the image she received.

She pointed out that the Building Dignity and Respect program was created to protect especially construction workers — who have been impacted by wage theft and sometimes forced labor — by implementing a code to encourage and monitor mutual respect and conflict resolution. The questioner noted it has taken years of advocacy to attempt to get the three largest multi-family housing developers in the Twin Cities to sign into the code. She asked how the candidates would respond as mayor.

• Davis said his administration would prioritize enforcement by partnering with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to monitor and prosecute wage theft. He called for real sanctions — such as denying city contracts to violators — and emphasized protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. He said it should be a multi-government, multi-level effort to monitor and investigate businesses, talk to non-union and union workers about their rights and protections, and create confidential opportunities to report incidents. “We have to be in the business of enforcement, and we’re going to need you to help us do it.”
• Fateh pledged to restore funding for labor enforcement programs that he said had been cut under Frey’s administration. He stressed the importance of supporting worker-led organizations that community members trust for sharing situations they are facing. He said worker rights are affected city-wide, statewide, and nationwide — including with Amazon warehouses in the suburbs and Uber and Lyft drivers. “The victims are predominantly people of color and immigrants. … Rather than strengthening the tools that we have, like our code enforcement contracts with the city, the mayor decided to cut funding, which ultimately hurts our workers.”
• Hampton said bringing developers to the table is not enough. He called for enforceable proof of compliance, including audits and reporting requirements, and said that consequences for violations must be meaningful to deter future abuses. “If there’s no actual bite, then there is no point,” he said. “What matters is someone following up and saying, ‘prove to me that you are doing these things. Because if not, we’re nervous that this is going to continue happening.’ If there is wage theft happening within our city, there needs to be swift and real consequences. You have to enforce the rules and make sure people feel it and know that it will happen to them as well.”

(l-r) DeWayne Davis, Omar Fateh, and Jazz Hampton participated in a Minneapolis mayoral forum September 3 co-hosted by three nonprofit organizations representing immigrants, labor, and renters. Current mayor Jacob Frey declined to participate. (photos by Sarah Whiting)

Immigrant Protections

Another question at the forum asked how the next mayor would ensure that city agencies, including the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), protect residents regardless of immigration status. She pointed to the city’s separation ordinance, which restricts local collaboration with federal immigration enforcement, but argued that the policy has proven insufficient in the wake of a June 3 incident in which federal agents appeared at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue, as well as MPD and Hennepin Co. deputies.

“We’re in a new political moment,” she said, “and we are seeing federal authorities abusing their power, violating constitutional rights of individuals, covering their faces, refusing to wear badges, and terrorizing community members across the country. We saw this in our own community on June 3. It was outrageous [to have federal agents with tanks at a criminal investigation]. The amendment passed by the voters in Minneapolis in 2021 has given the mayor primary authority over MPD.” She asked how the candidates would use their MPD supervisory role in cases of immigrant safety.

All three candidates were at the site on June 3 and criticized how the incident was handled by the current mayor.

Hampton said MPD should be present in such situations, but only to protect residents, not to aid federal authorities. “Their feet have to be facing the right direction,” he said, emphasizing that local police should shield residents rather than “sit back” while federal officers operate. He emphasized the need for better preparation and communication in advance of federal operations, noting that true public safety includes protecting residents from intimidation. Federal agents “went to multiple locations that day, and there weren’t Humvees at multiple locations. It was intentional to terrorize our neighbors.”

Fateh said the incident exposed weaknesses in the separation ordinance and in communication between city leadership and the council. “We learned that MPD and the mayor are not quick enough in disseminating information to our city council members. Our city council members were left in the dark, which means community members were left in the dark. That led to chaos and anxiety, and rightfully so. As mayor, I would ensure that we’re strengthening our separation ordinance, and anytime there are federal agencies in our city, that the city council and communities are alerted. Also, any MPD officer, including the chief, who collaborates with ICE would be terminated, period.”

He does not believe MPD should be at the site of federal agent action, even for crowd control. “Our community members are more comfortable seeing folks like Unidos and others, that are boots on the ground, providing comfort to community members.” Fateh noted that he serves as chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, and is aware of the terror that students face, “getting picked up in the middle of the night at the University of Minnesota and Mankato State, for example. Their parents have no idea where they’re being taken, their lawyers have no idea where they’re being detained, and people are just left in the dark. [University leaders] are afraid of losing funding. People’s resolve will be tested; they’re going to try to make people sacrifice values for funding. That’s where we’re at.”

Davis pointed out that the three of them raised concerns at the time about how the incident was handled. “One of the most disappointing things was to see how Jacob Frey attacked us. He attacked us more viciously than he even did the President, who’s responsible for sending out [federal agents]. That’s very telling, that criticism was all about us, but it was not about tanks in our streets, terrorizing our community.”

He called for the city attorney to work closely with the Minnesota Attorney General to aggressively explore lawsuits against federal agencies and vowed to hold police officers accountable if they cooperate with immigration enforcement. He called for proactive engagement with immigrant communities, especially to prepare for the day when Minneapolis might be targeted for harassment by federal agents.

Davis also pointed out that there should have been a conversation about accountability after the June 3 incident. “Accountability is saying, ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing it? What were you think you were doing. Will you do it again?’” Instead, he said, they were “pilloried because we dared to say that our police should give an account of what they knew, when they knew, why they took the action they did.”

A Defining Moment for Minneapolis

The forum revealed a shared acknowledgment that immigrant communities and workers in Minneapolis face mounting challenges, from federal intimidation to wage theft, and that the mayor’s office needs to be held accountable for representing the needs of all residents.

• Davis is lead minister at Plymouth Congregational Church, who has been involved in public safety and housing issues in Minneapolis, as well as previous work in D.C. trying to pass a carbon tax for green economy initiatives.
• Fateh is a state senator representing south Minneapolis, the son of Somali immigrants, who has authored 54 bills, working on behalf of free public college for students who families earn less than $80,000 and higher wages for Uber and Lyft drivers.
• Hampton was trained as a lawyer and worked for the Great Innocence Project, and affordable housing initiatives. After George Floyd was murdered, he co-founded TurnSignl, an app that connects drivers with attorneys nationwide during traffic stops to ensure their rights and lives are protected.

Minneapolis has ranked-choice voting, which means that voters rank candidates in order of preference. That way if one candidate is bumped early, a vote can still go toward the next-preferred candidate, and so on.

Next stories in this series will focus on the housing and public safety issues raised.

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