Trump Plans Crackdown on Somali Communities in Minnesota: What We Know.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump administration is preparing a sweeping immigration enforcement operation targeting Somali communities in Minnesota, intensifying anxiety in a state that hosts the largest Somali diaspora in the United States.
The planned action comes after a series of inflammatory remarks from President Donald Trump, who has spent the past week singling out Somali immigrants with increasingly hostile rhetoric.
According to officials familiar with internal planning, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deploying more than 100 officers from around the country to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area for a multi-day operation aimed at people with final deportation orders.
The timing and scope of the raids could still shift, but federal agencies are treating the initiative as a priority. Incidental arrests — detaining individuals not on ICE’s target list but lacking legal status — remain possible.
DHS declined to confirm the operation. “What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact they are in the country illegally,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
Still, the news has already sent shockwaves through Minnesota’s Somali community. Mayor Jacob Frey called the impending action “terrorizing,” while Governor Tim Walz accused the administration of staging a political “PR stunt.” Minneapolis city leaders pledged not to assist ICE agents in immigration checks.
The planned enforcement follows a string of incendiary comments from Trump, who on Tuesday described Somali immigrants as “garbage” and claimed, without evidence, that they “contribute nothing.” He dismissed concerns about political correctness and said Somalis should “go back to where they came from.”
The president’s remarks are part of a broader pattern. Last week he announced an immediate termination of Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals and asserted — again without evidence — that “Somali gangs” were “terrorizing” Minnesota.
He also revived unsupported claims that Somali residents had diverted U.S. welfare dollars to the militant group al-Shabab.
Those allegations gained traction after conservative activist Christopher Rufo published an article linking Minnesota welfare fraud to terrorist financing, though state and federal investigators have said they found no evidence of such a connection.
Prosecutors handling the state’s largest fraud case — involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future — said the defendants were motivated by personal enrichment, not terrorism.
Community leaders say Trump’s rhetoric, combined with the threat of mass arrests, has created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. “This is a political attack,” said Jaylani Hussein of CAIR-Minnesota. “You cannot scapegoat an entire community without evidence.”
Somalis began settling in Minnesota in significant numbers during the civil war of the 1990s. Today, an estimated 63,000 Somali Minnesotans live across the Twin Cities region.
Contrary to Trump’s assertions, they work across healthcare, transportation, retail, and manufacturing, and many are U.S. citizens — roughly half of Somali Minnesotans were born in the United States.
Representative Ilhan Omar, whom Trump also derided as “garbage,” said the administration was targeting “law-abiding families while doing nothing to address actual fraud.” She challenged the president to provide evidence to support his claims.
As federal agents prepare to deploy across Minnesota, Somali families are left in a familiar position — navigating rumor, fear, and political scapegoating while waiting to see how far the administration intends to go.
