The Trump administration is expanding its immigration raids targeting Somalis in Minneapolis this week, with reports of detentions already made as President Donald Trump spews vitriolic, racist hate against the population of several hundred thousand people in the U.S.
Major outlets, including The New York Times and Associated Press, reported Tuesday that U.S. officials are preparing the raid as a “high-priority sweep.” Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the U.S. The Census Bureau estimates that there is a population of 260,000 Somalis in the U.S., the vast majority of whom were born in the U.S. or are naturalized citizens.
The administration claims it’s targeting “hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants” in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Officials are deploying roughly 100 officers and agents for the operation.
Sahan Journal reports that local immigrant rights groups have said that they have already witnessed four Somali individuals being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this week. ICE has also targeted Southeast Asian and Latine people in Minneapolis for arrests.
Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin declined to comment on the raids but told Sahan: “What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally.”
That statement is directly contradicted by stomach-churning statements made by the president himself this week.
In a racist rant during his cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said that Somalis are “garbage” who “contribute nothing.” He said that Somalia is “no good” and “stinks,” ignoring the historic ravaging of the country by colonial powers and his own contribution to the devastation of the country due to his sweeping aid cuts.
He also directed hatred toward Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), who has long faced bigoted animosity from the right for her Somali background and Muslim faith.
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said. “When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country.”
Trump also recently announced that he is revoking Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota — a move that has questionable legal grounds, but that the administration is sure to charge forth with anyway.
Minneapolis leaders, including the mayor, have condemned the statements, pledging to stand by the Somali community.
Omar brushed off the comments, simply saying: “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) also denounced Trump’s racism in a post on X.
“When demagogues like Trump are in trouble, they reach for the same playbook: racism, hatred and division, this time against Rep. Ilhan Omar and the Somali-American community,” he said. “It’s disgusting. It’s un-American. And it won’t work.”
Progressive Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pennsylvania) said that Trump’s comments echo the rhetoric that got a Democratic lawmaker, state Rep. Melissa Hortman, assassinated in Minnesota earlier this year.
“This is disgusting. Trump continues to put a target on @Ilhan, her family, & her community with his violent, xenophobic rhetoric,” Lee said. “A lawmaker in her home state of Minnesota was killed this year in an act of political violence. That alone should unite us against this hate speech.”
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