The agency said on Thursday that the US small business administration will close its regional office in Chicago and graduate from the city because of its friendly policies. However, the agency does not seem to have any plans to move or close the city's office in the city, which provides direct services to local small business owners.
Confusion began to rotate on Thursday when the agency announced that it would transfer six regional offices throughout the country because it is in cities “does not comply with migration and customs enforcement.”
“In the coming months, the offices of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and the Seattle regional offices will be transferred to less expensive and easier locations that serve the small business community and comply with the Federal Immigration Law,” SBA said in a statement.
SBA did not mention any plans to close or transfer any boycott offices, including in Chicago, but the advertisement still raises alert in some angles, an example of the chaotic approach often in the administration of President Donald Trump regarding federal agencies, leaving agencies and their employees at a confusion.
The Chicago Regional Office is located in Chicago, which works as a kind of headquarters for the agency's field operations throughout the Great Lakes region, at 332 S. Michigan Ave.
But the agency also runs a field office called an office for the region, in the same area of ​​the city center, former regional director of SBA Geri Aglipay, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and held the position of regional official for the Great Lakes region during the Biden period.
According to the agency, SBA runs at least one province office in each state. At the Illinois County Office, which contains the Springfield branch in addition to its location in Chicago, according to the SBA website, small business owners and businessmen can receive services that include consulting and helping to obtain loans or disaster assistance.
“SBA services will not be affected by the transfer of the regional office in Chicago. Mary Owen Thomas, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the timetable for the regional office’s step will happen, but we expect it to happen in the coming months.
The former regional director Aglipay said that the transfer of the regional office in Chicago should not affect the ability of field employees to serve small business owners.
She said that she was “deeply anxious” that the decision to transfer offices specifically because they are in the cities of the haven can send a message “to the migrants and their allies … that SBA does not support immigrants.”
“This is not true,” she said.
The announcement issued by SBA came after the mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson, along with the mayors in New York, Boston and Denver, defended the policies of their cities in a hearing in front of the Republic of Congress this week.
In the news statement on Thursday, SBA also said that he would start requesting the verification of citizenship for SBA loans.
“During the era of President Trump, SBA is committed to the situation of American citizens at the beginning – starting with a guarantee that taxpayers' money will go zero to finance illegal foreigners,” the agency's director, Kelly Levler, said in a statement.
Aglipay said that during her term, Chicago's regional office employees were made up of a few people, including herself. These are the employees who are likely to be asked to transfer offices due to the transfer mandate, as I suggested – not the most employee in the provincial office in the same area.
However, she confirmed that the decision to transfer regional offices from the cities of the haven can send a harmful message.
“This may cause small business owners to approach SBA and our resource partners in this field,” said Aglipay.
According to the 2022 discussion of the SBA invitation office, immigrants have higher acts of Americans born in the United States. As of 2018, about 18 % of companies with employees were owned by migrants, according to the research.
It was originally published: March 7, 2025 at 1:13 pm
