HARTFORD, CT — As the Trump administration intensifies immigration enforcement nationwide, Connecticut business leaders are warning of an immediate and disruptive economic impact on the greater Hartford area, particularly among immigrant-owned businesses.
Art Feldman, founder of the nonprofit International Hartford, said the policy shift threatens to destabilize local economies.
“You’d be going to your neighborhood retailer, restaurant, dry cleaner, hair salon, grocery store and you find the doors closed,” Feldman said.
According to Feldman, roughly 1,600 immigrant-owned businesses in Hartford County could be at risk of shutting down if deportations accelerate.
In the city of Hartford alone, that number could reach 200.
Feldman said the closures would not just affect storefronts and workers — they would also deliver a significant blow to local government revenues.
“It would be a big hit to the tax base of many cities and towns,” he said.
International Hartford has long worked to support immigrant entrepreneurs in establishing small businesses and integrating into Connecticut’s economy.
Now, the organization is sounding the alarm about what Feldman calls the “invisible infrastructure” of daily life — small service-sector businesses often staffed and owned by immigrants.
With many of these enterprises located in dense commercial corridors, the ripple effects of closures could disrupt everything from local employment to consumer access to basic services.
As the federal government escalates enforcement, the question of economic fallout in cities like Hartford is no longer theoretical — it’s increasingly immediate.
