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Business Daily

ICE: Is it chilling the US economy?

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4816 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last year, around 4000 federal officers were deployed in Minneapolis in a major immigration crackdown.

Local firms say the resulting upheaval and protests didn’t just disrupt local people’s lives, they also damaged the economy. But has the anti-immigration drive had a similar impact across the US?

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Ed Butler Producer: Josh Martin

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute, daily deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, the economic impact of the war in the Middle East, and why bond markets are so powerful.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include Google's Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the CEO of Canva, Melanie Perkins.

(Picture: Masked federal agents wearing a Police ICE jacket, stand in a hallway at the New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York on the 17th of March 2026. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

0:07.3

Hi there, I'm Ed Butler, welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Today,

0:13.1

President Trump's anti-immigration drive, what's it doing to the US economy? The metro search

0:19.8

have completely killed our business. For me, as a Mexican,

0:24.1

my community has been traumatized. It's hard to believe that this can happen in this country.

0:29.1

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are now off work. They're either deported or afraid to leave

0:35.2

their homes. But how much is that affecting America's bottom line?

0:39.2

Because the immigrant workers aren't working,

0:40.9

it's disrupting the entire operations

0:42.7

and upsetting the ability of native-born workers to do their jobs,

0:46.5

therefore everyone gets affected.

0:47.8

So I don't think this is helping in any way.

0:50.1

The ICE effect.

0:51.3

Is it chilling the economy?

0:52.9

That's Business Daily from the BBC.

1:03.4

The sound there of mass protests on the streets of Minneapolis this year.

1:08.6

There's Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, ICE, for short,

1:12.6

move in to arrest migrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

1:16.7

Open the door.

1:18.3

Open it.

1:19.3

Give them your hands. Give them their hands.

1:25.5

I'm not resisting.

...

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