MINNEAPOLIS — The firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has done little to ease the economic damage to immigrant-owned and immigrant-serving small businesses in Minneapolis, where business owners, activists, and educators said Friday the losses from the nation’s largest immigration enforcement surge continue to mount.

Daniel Hernandez, who runs Colonial Market in south Minneapolis, said 10 of the 12 Latino small businesses renting space from him remain shuttered, and only one — an Ecuadorian ice cream shop — has been able to reopen since the enforcement operation began in December. “I don’t know if my business will survive, being honest,” said Hernandez, an immigrant from Mexico. “The amount of damage is so big that I am afraid.”

President Donald Trump fired Noem as homeland security secretary on Thursday amid mounting criticism over her leadership, including her handling of the enforcement surge and the deaths of two Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot by federal officers. The Trump administration had already scaled back the operation before Noem’s departure.

The surge, which peaked at around 3,000 federal officers in Minnesota according to reporting, has left a documented economic toll. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said last month that small businesses have collectively lost tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and he estimated the federal operation cost the city’s economy $203 million in January alone and led 76,000 people to experience food insecurity.

Customers who remain at Hernandez’s store are spending far less. “Instead of spending $150, now they spend $30, $40,” he said. Others stopped coming in entirely — either out of fear of being detained regardless of their legal status, or because reduced work has left money tight.

ICE numbers in dispute

The scale of the remaining federal presence in Minnesota remained unclear Friday. Noem told Congress this week that approximately 650 ICE and other federal officers were still in the state. But Sen. Amy Klobuchar said White House border czar Tom Homan told her that figure was incorrect and that the operation had been reduced to a little over 100 ICE officers, plus some additional agents working on fraud investigations.

ICE and Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Schools still affected

The enforcement operation has also disrupted public education in the Minneapolis area. Brenda Lewis, superintendent of Fridley Public Schools in suburban Minneapolis, said more than 112 students have unenrolled since the operation began, another 400 are attending school virtually, and the district has lost $130,000 in meal program revenue.

Fridley, which has students from many Somali and Ecuadorian families, has seen heightened federal enforcement activity over the past two months. Federal vehicles were reported in neighborhoods near the schools and at the homes of school board members.

“It’s not a Democrat or a Republican issue,” Lewis said. “It’s about children’s safety, and we need to really come together and ensure that this absolute removal of safety for school children by a federal agency can never ever happen again in the state or the country.”

Grassroots networks take hold

Minneapolis psychologist Lucy Olson helped organize a covert grassroots volunteer network that grew to 2,000 volunteers assisting around 500 immigrant families with legal matters, shelter, food, and rent assistance. She said the mutual aid systems formed during the surge would continue operating.

“For those of us who had the honor of participating as volunteers, I think we will never be the same,” Olson said. “I think there’s been cross-cultural friendships, the opportunity to build out neighborhood networks that have changed the face of our city.”

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a news conference Friday that community organizing against the surge had played a role in the administration’s partial retreat — and that the work was not finished.

“We warn our community that the fight is not over,” said Hussein, a Somali American. “It is a good day to say good riddance to Kristi Noem. But it’s not a good day to walk away from the fight.”

Thirty-nine people remain under indictment for their alleged roles in a protest at a St. Paul church where pastor David Easterwood serves as a top local ICE official. Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local civil rights lawyer and ordained nondenominational Christian reverend, is among those indicted.

“We recognize that this system is very broken,” Levy Armstrong said.

Patty O’Keefe, a Minneapolis resident who was detained in January for following a federal officer’s vehicle, said Noem’s dismissal signaled waning public support for the operation rather than its end.

“It’s a sign that we’re winning, that the Trump administration feels like they have to make a change to save face because they’re losing public support and losing the narrative,” O’Keefe said.

Brandon Sigüenza, who was detained alongside O’Keefe, said grief over the deaths of Good and Pretti tempered any sense of celebration.

“I don’t think Minneapolitans are necessarily dancing in the streets. Because there’s still no justice for Renee Good, there’s still no justice for Alex Pretti,” Sigüenza said.

GOP reaction muted

State Republican leaders, who had generally backed the surge, were largely silent Friday on Noem’s departure. A message seeking comment from U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer — the state’s most powerful Republican — was not returned.

GOP state Sen. Jim Abeler, a moderate from suburban Anoka, said he had written to Noem in January expressing “grave concerns” about some of her officers’ conduct in Minnesota.

“With her departure, I hope that what happened in Minnesota won’t happen anywhere else,” Abeler said in a statement.