Minnesota

Ilhan Omar Says ICE Briefly Detained Her Son Amid Minnesota Immigration Crackdown

Published

4 days ago

December 15, 2025

They Are Hunting Faces: Omar Says ICE Stopped Her Son in Minneapolis. From Mosque to Target Parking Lot.

MINNEAPOLIS — Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said U.S. immigration agents briefly detained her son over the weekend in Minnesota, an incident she described as emblematic of what she called racially targeted enforcement as the Trump administration intensifies immigration operations in Somali-majority neighborhoods.

In an interview with Minneapolis broadcaster WCCO on Sunday, Omar said her son was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after leaving a Target store. She said he was released once he presented his U.S. passport.

“Once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” Omar said, adding that her son routinely carries identification because of heightened anxiety within the community.

Omar also said that earlier in the day, ICE agents entered a mosque where her son had been praying, before leaving without making arrests. She said the encounter reinforced her concerns that federal agents are engaging in racial profiling under an operation known as Operation Metro Surge, which has deployed immigration officers across the Twin Cities.

“I told him how worried I am,” Omar said. “They are racially profiling. They are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented.”

The Democratic lawmaker, who has represented Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District since 2019, is the first Somali American elected to the U.S. Congress and a frequent target of political attacks by President Donald Trump. In recent remarks, Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” and suggested Omar should be expelled from the country — comments that civil rights groups and local officials have condemned as openly racist.

The Trump administration has framed the Minnesota operation as part of a broader effort to remove undocumented immigrants with criminal records. However, Omar and other critics argue the tactics being used — including traffic stops and visible enforcement near mosques and commercial centers — are creating fear among law-abiding residents, many of whom are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Last week, Omar sent a formal letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, accusing the agency of “blatant racial profiling” and conduct “designed for social media rather than befitting a law enforcement agency.” She said reports from constituents describe unnecessary force and intimidation, particularly toward young men.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali diaspora in the United States, with tens of thousands of Somali Americans concentrated in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. Many families arrived as refugees during the civil war of the 1990s and have since built businesses, civic institutions, and political influence. Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have defended the community, noting that most Somali residents are U.S. citizens and contribute significantly to the city’s economy and cultural life.

Civil liberties advocates warn that aggressive enforcement strategies risk undermining trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, particularly at a time when national rhetoric around immigration has grown increasingly hostile.

For Omar, the encounter involving her son has personal and political resonance. “No one should have to carry their passport just to go about their daily life,” she said. “That is not what equal protection under the law looks like.”

The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly commented on Omar’s account of the incident. ICE has previously said its operations are intelligence-driven and not based on race or ethnicity.

As enforcement activity continues, community leaders say the broader impact may extend beyond immigration policy — reshaping how Somali Americans perceive their place in the country and how visible they feel they can safely be.

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Inside America’s Somali Crisis — Fear, Fraud, and Politics Collide

Minnesota

Inside America’s Somali Crisis — Fear, Fraud, and Politics Collide

Published

2 weeks ago

December 7, 2025

WARYATV Duty Editor - David Kurt

Inside “Little Mogadishu”: Minnesota’s Somali Community Under Pressure From Fraud Scandals and Trump’s Attacks.

MINNEAPOLIS — The nation’s largest Somali community is once again at the center of a fierce political storm. In Cedar–Riverside, the Minneapolis neighborhood long known as “Little Mogadishu,” residents find themselves navigating a double assault: a sweeping federal fraud scandal that has damaged public trust, and an escalating barrage of inflammatory rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his allies.

Trump’s latest comments — accusing Somalis of “ripping off the state for billions” and declaring “we don’t want them in our country” — were the bluntest yet.

They landed hard in a community already reeling from the fallout of the Feeding Our Future scandal, the largest pandemic-era fraud case in U.S. history, in which a number of Somali Minnesotans were charged or convicted.

Trump and members of his administration have also revived unproven allegations of widespread immigration fraud, including long-discredited claims about Rep. Ilhan Omar.

For many Somali Minnesotans, the political climate now feels like a return to the darkest years after 9/11, when suspicion overshadowed daily life.

A Community on the Defensive

Residents interviewed by Fox News Digital expressed frustration that the actions of a small group have branded an entire community as criminal.

They argue the portrayal erases the lived reality of tens of thousands of Somali Minnesotans who work in factories, trucking, nursing, tech, and small business — and who have spent decades building a stable community in the upper Midwest.

But the scrutiny is unavoidable. The fraud cases, combined with longstanding concerns over gang activity and the small number of Minnesotan youth who once joined al-Shabaab, have created a narrative that is difficult to escape.

A Neighborhood Transformed

In Cedar–Riverside, the demographic shift is unmistakable. Once a bohemian student-and-nightlife corridor, it now carries the visual and cultural imprint of a Somali-majority district: mosques replacing bars, Arabic and Somali signage replacing English storefronts, and the fading modernist towers of Riverside Plaza looming over a neighborhood struggling under poverty rates triple the state average.

During Fox News Digital’s visit, streets were quiet and storefronts shuttered. Men gathered outside mosques for prayer; volunteers in reflective vests assisted people suffering from addiction-related medical crises. Political posters for Somali-American candidates blanketed corners.

The cultural vibrancy remained, but the economic struggle was visible.

Between Aspiration and Hardship

Despite the negative headlines, the community is not monolithic. Younger Somalis spoke openly about wanting to blend into American culture, code-switch between identities, or enter creative fields. Others highlighted the intense pressures of being part of multiple minority categories at once — Black, Muslim, immigrant, refugee — in a society where each marker carries its own challenges.

At Karmel Mall, the bustling heart of the Somali diaspora, barbers, hair stylists, shop owners, and tech workers described a different narrative: resilience, ambition, and a community determined to prove its place in America.

Many emphasized that their stories — educational success, entrepreneurship, civic engagement — rarely make national news.

Yet poverty remains entrenched. Median household incomes hover around $43,600, and more than a third of Somali Minnesotans live below the poverty line. Leaders like CAIR–Minnesota’s Jaylani Hussein argue that these struggles are symptoms of a young, still-developing immigrant community — not evidence of cultural failure.

The Shadow of Politics

What troubles Somali leaders most is not the fraud scandal itself but the political reaction to it. Trump’s remarks have revived fears of mass suspicion, surveillance, and scapegoating.

Community elders worry that decades of effort to integrate into Minnesota’s social fabric could be undone overnight by rhetoric that conflates individuals’ crimes with collective identity.

Somali residents say they cannot escape the reality that the community is now part of America’s political battleground — a symbol used by both parties, though often without nuance.

“Minnesota has had thirty years with the Somali community,” Hussein said. “Ninety-five percent of it has been positive. Our children were born here — they are Minnesotans now.”

But the fight over “Little Mogadishu’s” place in Minnesota — and in American identity — is far from over.