Local Entrepreneurs React to Small Business Administration’s Plan to Move Chicago Office Out of City

Shelby Hawkins | March 10, 2025, 7:11 pm

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is relocating its regional Chicago office, as well as those in five other metropolitan cities.

Local SBAs are tasked with providing funding, education and resources to small business owners, operating as a lifeline to both aspiring business owners and longtime entrepreneurs.

News of the relocations comes after the mayors of Chicago, Denver, Boston and New York City testified in Washington, D.C., over their municipalities’ statuses as so-called sanctuary cities.

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In a statement, SBA cites the cities’ sanctuary policies and non-compliance with federal immigration authorities as the reason for removal. The agency said: “The SBA is putting American citizens first by serving legal, eligible business owners in partnership with cities that share this Administration’s commitment to secure borders. In the coming months, the SBA will relocate its Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, and Seattle regional offices out of sanctuary cities and into more accessible communities that comply with federal immigration law.”

However, Chicago is in compliance with federal immigration laws.

Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance doesn’t allow local officials to ask about or investigate an individual’s immigration status in most cases, nor can police detain someone if the only infraction they’ve committed is being in the country illegally. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, can still conduct immigration operations in the city.

SBA is also implementing a new measure in which small business loan applicants would need to verify their citizenship.

Immigrants who aren’t lawfully in the country or able to legally work in the U.S. were never eligible for SBA resources.

Brian Thompson, a clinical professor of economics at Depaul University and a small business owner, said that businesses will need to shift with the changing times.

“Businesses need to be strategic, and what it means to be strategic is what you do given the environment,” Thompson said. “It’s very clear that the environment has changed, so it’s up to businesses to adjust and adapt to the environment that they’re now inheriting.”

Thompson called small businesses the “fiber of a community” and acknowledged that moving the office out of Chicago will likely also move resources and create a challenge for business owners.

“There’s really not enough resources for small business, especially business (owners) of color,” said Jessica Walks First, the executive chef and owner of Ketapanen Kitchen. “I had to do a lot of figuring things out on my own, and my greatest support came from my community.”

Walks First said culture, community and understanding are lost when small businesses aren’t allowed to thrive.

“Small businesses is what Chicago is built on, it’s what I remember growing up,” Walks First said. “It’s connection and community, and they’re important. If they go away, what do we have left?”