Just as booksellers in Washington, D.C. and Chicago faced hardship when the Trump administration sent National Guard members and federal agents to their cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul’s indie booksellers say they have been negatively impacted by the deployment of ICE agents that began in December and accelerated after the holidays.

While most of the dozen booksellers that PW spoke to this past week report that the financial impact has been minimal, as sales typically slow down in January, every bookseller stressed the emotional toll the experience has taken on them and their customers, especially following the murder of poet Renee Good by an ICE agent on a residential street in Minneapolis on January 7.

All of the booksellers PW spoke to emphasized their commitment to serving as a community hub, where information about one’s Constitutional rights and resources for non-citizens are readily available. Every bookstore is currently handing out free whistles; some are also giving away anti-ICE posters and signs and participating in patrolling and protesting.

Inkwell Booksellers, located in a large industrial space across the Mississippi River from downtown, has established itself as a place for activists to drop off and pick up deliveries. “We have the space,” owner Elizabeth Foster told PW.

A few Minneapolis booksellers requested anonymity: one bookseller expressed concerns for the store’s “more vulnerable customers,” saying that ICE is harassing and detaining Indigenous people, as well as children.

“One of the concerns that we have about talking,” an employee at one bookstore in the vicinity of Good's murder said, “is we don't want the stuff that we are doing to make our store and our staff a target.” Like every bookstore PW reached out to, this bookstore is maintaining regular hours and an unlocked door, with signage stating that all are welcome to enter except for ICE agents.

There has not been any decrease in foot traffic, according to the bookseller, who said there may even be an increase, as people come in looking for information, resources, and whistles. Others, she added, simply “want to come into a space where they feel safe and where there’s a sense of community and they know that they don't have to worry about the outside world.”

The co-manager of another indie told PW that it’s “much quieter” in her neighborhood than before ICE showed up, but she and the rest of the store’s employees remain committed to “the craft” of bookselling.

She gave a shout out to her store’s customers—“especially the young people, the queer kids, taking a risk just showing up at the store”—and to UPS and FedEx drivers who continue to deliver cartons of books despite threats to their safety. “There’s so much labor behind the scenes,” she observed, “and they aren’t missing a beat.”

Foot traffic, sales down

Meanwhile, Beth Thompson of Big Hill Books in Minneapolis’s Bryn Mawr neighborhood says that sales and foot traffic actually started dropping at her store in December, as the Trump administration lobbed insults at the state’s Somali community. “We have Somali customers,” she said, “and we have seen hardly any of them in the last six weeks.”

Thompson noted that ICE activity is less intense in Bryn Mawr than in areas like Uptown, where Devin Abraham of Once Upon a Crime says that sales have plummeted 30-40% in the past two weeks.

“I’m trying to survive,” she said, “People have been coming in to support a local business, but it’s still not getting us to where we need to be.”

As for children’s stores Wild Rumpus and Red Balloon, both said they were adversely impacted this past week by author cancellations. Jasmine Warga postponed her January 9 stop in the Twin Cities; the middle grade author was scheduled to appear in-store at Red Balloon in St. Paul and also visit local schools. Another "high-profile author" whom Timothy Otte, a co-owner of Wild Rumpus declined to identify, canceled on Wednesday an upcoming stop in Minneapolis to visit local schools, and "explicitly named ICE's presence as the reason for the cancellation," Otte said.

"Our education programming was one of the biggest areas of growth for us in 2025, so to start 2026 by losing a major author stings," he added.

Sales are also down at Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s, known as the Uncles, according to owner Don Blyly. “A lot of people are demonstrating instead of reading books,” Blyly said, adding that sales last Saturday, usually the store’s biggest day of the week, were down two-thirds.

“A lot of my customers are afraid to leave their houses,” Byly said, “and there’s a lot going over on Lake Street”—a major artery through Minneapolis a block away from the Uncles that's lined with Latinx restaurants, markets, and other businesses.

Across the street from the Uncles, Moon Palace Books co-owner Angela Schwesnedl said that sales and foot traffic have decreased at her store as well. But she and store co-owner Jamie Schwesnedl said they “have been preparing for this for a couple of months” and are connecting with other businesses to conduct “as many trainings as we can” on how proprietors can effectively protect employees and customers.

Schwesnedl mentioned that she attended a session on creating mutual aid spaces at Heartland Fall Forum in October and “came out of it more prepared.” Speaking with Chicago booksellers during the conference about their anti-ICE strategies was also very helpful, she said.

Twin Cities bookstores that are further away from ICE activity have been supportive, Schwesnedl noted. “They’ve got our backs,” she said, “they’ll support us no matter what happens. This is a bookselling community that takes care of each other, you know?”

An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the children's book author who canceled their upcoming visits to local schools, sponsored by Wild Rumpus. This error has been corrected.