Julian Ocampo’s family opened their first Mexican-American restaurant in Minneapolis in 2003, following it up over the years with a chain of Los Ocampo restaurants and bars, or sister eateries, including Mr. Taco in Maplewood and Machete Cocina Mexicana in Woodbury.

With customers and workers alike fearful of being detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, all eight sites went on hiatus on Jan. 7, closing their doors due to plummeting sales and a lack of staffing.

A worker sets up the kitchen at the Los Ocampo restaurant in St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Five of the family’s eateries will serve food again by the end of the week, though some will still offer take-out only and keep their doors locked to screen customers. The Los Ocampo on Arcade Street on St. Paul’s East Side, which is situated in an area heavily monitored by ICE, will remain shuttered.

“Right now we’re in survival mode,” said Ocampo on Monday, predicting smaller mom-and-pop Latin businesses will go bankrupt. “They’re hurting bad.”

As she visits with shop keepers at Hmong shopping centers, restaurant owners in the Latin and ethnic Karen communities, and immigrant grocers, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her hears the same story again and again. Even naturalized U.S. citizens are afraid to leave their homes, fearful that they won’t have the language skills to avoid detainment by federal agents.

As a result, many immigrant businesses have reported losing 60% or more of their sales. Some have already closed their doors, scared of being raided by federal agents, or keep their shops locked so they can screen every visitor at the door.

“Closing a business happens very quickly, but starting one up can take years, which means this is going to impact us,” Her said. “Even if (ICE) were out of here in another couple of months, this is going to have a lasting economic impact.”

Notes of support from community members decorate the windows of the Los Ocampo restaurant in St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Shop Local, Stand Together campaign

With rents and utilities coming due but little income in sight, some restaurants, grocers, hair salons and other immigrant-owned businesses have turned to the online fundraising platform GoFundMe.com to appeal to the public for help.

Taqueria El Charrito, which closed its doors in early January, is “a beloved, family-owned restaurant on the West Side of St. Paul that has served as a gathering place for the local Latino community,” reads a GoFundMe solicitation created by a longtime customer. “It has provided not only food, but jobs, stability, and cultural connection.”

“For many of the workers at El Charrito, missing even one paycheck can mean falling behind on rent, losing access to food, or facing housing insecurity,” reads the posting, which is being shared on Facebook. “The financial strain is becoming overwhelming.”

With their workers and personal livelihoods in mind, more than 1,000 chefs and restaurant owners have signed an open letter to Congress pleading for an end to Operation Metro Surge and a reform of ICE operations. That letter was delivered to the Senate last Thursday by U.S. Sen. Tina Smith.

‘Shop Local’

Alarmed by plummeting sales at neighborhood shops and immigrant-owned businesses during Operation Metro Surge, the St. Paul mayor recently joined leaders of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic and Development and the Minneapolis Foundation to promote the governor’s “Shop Local, Stand Together” campaign.

Gov. Tim Walz has declared February “Shop Local” month in hopes of spurring customers who feel safe doing so to spend their dollars at locally-owned businesses, including ethnic grocers and restaurants that have lost customers nervous about leaving home.

“Supporting local, small, and immigrant-owned businesses is an act of community support and an investment in the dignity, stability, and vitality of our neighborhoods and local economies,” reads the gubernatorial proclamation, issued toward the end of January.

“Support doesn’t have to be complicated; it can start with where you shop and eat,” it goes on to say. “Simply showing up and making a purchase is significant, and people in Minnesota who feel safe doing so can play a meaningful role in strengthening their communities by prioritizing local businesses … and encouraging others to do the same.”

Economic Response Fund

Along a similar vein, the Minneapolis Foundation has launched an Economic Response Fund, readying an initial $4 million for grants to support impacted small businesses in St. Paul and Minneapolis with payroll, rent, staffing and inventory needs.

The fund, which may grow in time, is backed by 28 Minnesota companies, including Allianz, Allina Health, CHS, Ecolab, General Mills, Land O’ Lakes, Securian Financial, Target and Xcel Energy.

Grants will be distributed through community organizations, with further details soon to be announced. Business owners interested in learning more can visit the foundation website at minneapolisfoundation.org.

The foundation is asking companies and individuals to contribute to the fund at mplsfdn.org/erf.

Ethnic restaurants, markets

To promote both efforts, Her, DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek and Minneapolis Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer R.T. Rybak met with representatives of the Neighborhood Development Center and a series of ethnic restaurants and markets on Jan. 29 at the Los Ocampo site on Dale Street and University avenue.

Officials were joined by the founders of the Afro Deli restaurants, CentroMex grocery on St. Paul’s East Side, the Mexican restaurant Oro by Nixta in Minneapolis, World Street Kitchen in Minneapolis, La Michoacana desserts and The Perfect Coffee on St. Paul’s Rice Street.

The business owners noted that immigrants are, often by necessity, heavily driven entrepreneurs, leaning on family and ethnic networks to launch small businesses that become the lifeblood of neighborhood business corridors. Without them, entire neighborhoods may suffer.

It wasn’t lost on them that the economic crisis unfolding for ethnic entrepreneurs during Operation Metro Surge is like a localized earthquake that tears some businesses apart while leaving others standing, seemingly oblivious.

The pandemic, and to a lesser extent the racially-tinged riots of 2020, “affected the whole world,” Ocampo said. “It didn’t matter your skin color or your accent. Now, it’s based on skin color and accent.”

For some business owners, there are hints of normalcy on the horizon, at least here and there. On Tuesday, after being out of service for a month, the Los Ocampo near the University of St. Thomas on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul was scheduled to flip its lights back on, the latest in a series of gradual re-openings for the family-run chain.

Still, a hair salon in a property the Ocampo family owns on Lake Street in Minneapolis has yet to welcome back customers, or pay its January rent.

“Every small business on Lake Street that’s a mom-and-pop, those are the ones I think are going to hurt really bad,” Ocampo said.

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By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday after an appeals court directed him to take a fresh look at President Donald Trump’s bid to erase his hush money conviction.

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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November ordered U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to reconsider his decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court, where Trump can seek to have it thrown out on presidential immunity grounds.

A three-judge panel ruled that Hellerstein erred by failing to consider “important issues relevant” to Trump’s request to move the New York case to federal court. They said they “express no view” on how he should rule.

Trump, a Republican, is not expected to attend Wednesday’s arguments in federal court in New York City, which were preceded by lengthy written submissions from Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case and wants it to remain in state court.

Hellerstein, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has twice denied Trump’s requests to move the case.

The first was after Trump’s March 2023 indictment; the second followed Trump’s May 2024 conviction and a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents and former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts.

In the later ruling, at issue in the 2nd Circuit decision, Hellerstein said Trump’s lawyers had failed to meet the high burden of proof for changing jurisdiction and that Trump’s conviction for falsifying business records involved his personal life, not official actions that the Supreme Court ruled are immune from prosecution.

The 2nd Circuit panel said Hellerstein’s ruling, which echoed his previous denial, “did not consider whether certain evidence admitted during the state court trial relates to immunized official acts or, if so, whether evidentiary immunity transformed” the hush money case into one that relates to official acts.

The three judges said Hellerstein should closely review evidence that Trump claims relate to official acts.

If Hellerstein finds the prosecution relied on evidence of official acts, the judges said, he should weigh whether Trump can argue those actions were taken as part of his White House duties, whether Trump “diligently sought” to have the case moved to federal court and whether the case can even be moved to federal court now that Trump has been convicted and sentenced in state court.

Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, whose allegations of an affair with Trump threatened to upend his 2016 presidential campaign. He was sentenced to an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction intact but sparing him any punishment.

Trump denies Daniels’ claim and said he did nothing wrong. He has asked a state appellate court to overturn the conviction.

By KAMILA HRABCHUK, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending the almost four-year war, a Ukrainian negotiator said.

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The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the United Arab Emirates by U.S. officials, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, who was present at the meeting, said on social media.

Umerov said the planned two-day negotiations started with all three delegations present, after which negotiators were to break into groups according to topics and then meet as a full group again at the end.

The American team was due to include special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended last month’s meeting, according to the White House.

The current talks also coincide with the expiry of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States on Thursday. Trump and Putin could extend the terms of the treaty or renegotiate its conditions in an effort to prevent a new nuclear arms race.

Last month’s discussions in the Emirati capital, part of a U.S. push to end the fighting, yielded some progress but no breakthrough on key issues, officials said.

Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure

The Abu Dhabi talks were held amid Ukrainian outrage over major Russian attacks on its energy system, which have occurred each winter since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24 2022.

A huge Russian bombardment overnight from Monday to Tuesday included hundreds of drones and a record 32 ballistic missiles, wounding at least 10 people. This came despite Ukraine’s understanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told Trump he would temporarily halt strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.

Ukrainian civilians are struggling with one of the coldest winters in years, which saw temperatures around minus 4 Fahrenheit.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t offer any details on the Abu Dhabi talks and said that Moscow wasn’t planning any comment on their results.

He said that “the doors for a peaceful settlement are open,” but noted that Moscow will press its military action until Kyiv meets its demands.

Russia is hitting Ukraine’s energy facilities because its armed forces believe the targets are associated with Kyiv’s military effort, Peskov said.

There has been a lack of clarity about how long Putin had promised to observe a pause on power grid attacks.

Trump said Tuesday at the White House that Putin had agreed to halt strikes for a week, through Feb. 1, and that the Russian leader had kept his word. But Zelenskyy said Tuesday that “barely four days have passed of the week Russia was asked to hold off,” before Ukraine was hit with fresh attacks, suggesting the Ukrainian leader wasn’t fully aware of the terms of the Trump-Putin agreement.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “unfortunately unsurprised” by Moscow’s resumption of attacks.

On Wednesday, more than 200 repair crews were at work in Kyiv to restore power, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said, adding that staff were exhausted and would be rotated. More than 1,100 apartment buildings in the capital were still without heating, Zelenskyy said.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said the developments were part of Moscow’s negotiating strategy.

“The Kremlin will likely attempt to portray its adherence to this short-term energy strikes moratorium as a significant concession to gain leverage in the upcoming peace talks, even though the Kremlin used these few days to stockpile missiles for a larger strike package,” it said late Tuesday.

Overnight attacks

Russia launched 105 drones against Ukraine overnight, and air defenses shot down 88 of them, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. Strikes by 17 drones were recorded at 14 locations, as well as falling debris at five sites, it said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian strike on a residential area killed a 68-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hancha said.

The southern city of Odesa also came under a large-scale attack, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said. About 20 residential buildings were damaged, with four people rescued from under the rubble, he said.

By DIDI TANG, JOSH FUNK and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to unveil its grandest plan yet to rebuild supply chains of critical minerals needed for everything from jet engines to smartphones, likely through purchase agreements with partners on top of creating a $12 billion U.S. strategic reserve to help counter China’s dominance.

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Vice President JD Vance is set to deliver a keynote address Wednesday at a meeting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations. The U.S. is expected to sign deals on supply chain logistics, though details have not been revealed. Rubio met Tuesday with foreign ministers from South Korea and India to discuss critical minerals mining and processing.

The meeting and expected agreements will come just two days after Trump announced Project Vault, or a stockpile of critical minerals to be funded with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital.

Trump’s Republican administration is making such bold moves after China, which controls 70% of the world’s rare earths mining and 90% of the processing, choked off the flow of the elements in response to Trump’s tariff war. The two superpowers are in a one-year truce after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in October and agreed to pull back on high tariffs and stepped-up rare earth restrictions.

But China’s limits remain tighter than they were before Trump took office.

“We don’t want to ever go through what we went through a year ago,” Trump said on Monday when announcing Project Vault.

Countering China’s dominance on critical minerals

Other countries might join with the Trump administration in buying up critical minerals and taking other steps to spur industry development because the trade war revealed how vulnerable Western countries are to China, said Pini Althaus, who founded Oklahoma rare earth miner USA Rare Earth in 2019.

“They’re looking at setting up sort of a buyers’ club, if you will,” said Althaus, who now is working to develop new mines in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as CEO of Cove Capital. “The key producers and key consumers of critical minerals will sort of get together and work on pricing structures, floor pricing and other things.”

The government last week also made its fourth direct investment in an American critical minerals producer when it extended $1.6 billion to USA Rare Earth in exchange for stock and a repayment agreement.

Seeking government funding these days is like meeting with private equity investors because officials are scrutinizing companies to ensure anyone they invest in can deliver, Althaus said. And the government is demanding terms designed to generate a return for taxpayers as loans are repaid and stock prices increase, he said.

The stockpile strategy

Meanwhile, the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s board this week approved the $10 billion loan — the largest in its history — to help finance the setup of the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve. It is tasked with ensuring access to critical minerals and related products for manufacturers, including battery maker Clarios, energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova, digital storage company Western Digital and aerospace giant Boeing, according to the policy bank.

Bank President and Chairman John Jovanovic told CNBC that the project creates a public-private partnership formula that “is uniquely suited and puts America’s best foot forward.”

“What it does is it creates a scenario where there are no free riders. Everybody pitches in to solve this huge problem,” he said.

Manufacturers, which benefit the most from the reserve, are making a long-term financial commitment, Jovanovic said, while the government loan spurs private investments.

The stockpile strategy may help spark a “more organic” pricing model that excludes China, which has used its dominance to flood the market with lower-priced products to squeeze out competitors, said Wade Senti, president of the U.S. permanent magnet company AML.

The Trump administration also has injected public money directly into the sector. The Pentagon has shelled out nearly $5 billion over the past year to help ensure its access to the materials after the trade war laid bare just how beholden the U.S. is to China.

Efforts get some bipartisan support

A bipartisan group of lawmakers last month proposed creating a new agency with $2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and the other critical minerals. The lawmakers applauded the steps by the Trump administration.

“It’s a clear sign that there is bipartisan support for securing a robust domestic supply of critical minerals that both reduces our reliance on China and stabilizes the market,” Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Todd Young, R-Ind., said in a joint statement Tuesday.

Building up a stockpile will help American companies weather future rare earth supply disruptions, but that will likely be a long-term effort because the materials are still scarce right now with China’s restrictions, said David Abraham, a rare earths expert who has followed the industry for decades and wrote the book “The Elements of Power.”

The Trump administration has focused on reinvigorating critical minerals production, but Abraham said it’s also important to encourage development of manufacturing that will use them. He noted that Trump’s decisions to cut incentives for electric vehicles and wind turbines have undercut demand for these elements in America.