Employment records of at least two Minneapolis-area businesses are being audited by the Department of Homeland Security, in what state and local officials describe as retaliation over the fallout from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
Hennepin Healthcare, which operates the state’s largest safety-net hospital, and Mischief Toy Store, a small retailer in St. Paul, both got notices from DHS demanding records to verify their employees are authorized to work in the U.S.
At a court hearing this week, Lindsey Middlecamp, a lawyer with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, described the audits as retaliatory, according to John Stiles, deputy chief of staff at the AG’s office. He said Middlecamp had no additional comment.
Hennepin said in a statement that it provided records to ensure compliance with federal employment-eligibility laws after receiving a Jan. 8 subpoena. Mischief Toy Store employs five U.S. citizens and has complied with requests by authorities to examine its employee records, Dan Marshall, a co-owner of the store, said in an interview.
Marshall said the request for documents came shortly after his daughter, a co-owner of the business, appeared on television criticizing the government’s immigration enforcement tactics. The DHS disputed that there was a connection.