A few of Minnesota’s Somali group stated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers already begun enforcement operations within the state.
Minneapolis Councilman Jamal Osman, who’s of Somali descent, informed ABC Information in an interview final Wednesday that areas for English as a second language programs, locations of worship and houses have been focused.
The deployment of ICE in Minnesota comes at a time after President Donald Trump introduced up Minnesota’s massive Somali group in final Tuesday’s Cupboard assembly, saying he didn’t need these from the northeast African nation in America as a result of “they contribute nothing.”
“This isn’t the America that I think about,” Osman stated. “What we’re seeing isn’t just politics; it is harmful.”
Jamal Osman in Minnesota, of Somali descent, was saddened to listen to President Donald Trump’s disparaging remarks about his group.
ABC Information
The councilman stated these with social safety numbers and work permits, and people ready for asylum interviews have been focused, in addition to U.S. residents. Osman stated that individuals are afraid to depart their homes, and he’s advising these of Somali descent to hold passports in all places they go.
“[I] by no means knew there might be a day that you must present your authorized doc in america [because you look Somali],” Osman stated to ABC Information on Wednesday. “However the actuality is individuals are not leaving house with out their passport.”
ICE stated on Thursday that brokers had arrested 12 folks in its Minnesota enforcement operation, the Related Press reported. Of these, six are Mexican nationals, 5 are from Somalia and one is from El Salvador, in keeping with the information gathering service.
The Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees ICE, didn’t instantly reply to ABC Information’ request for an replace on the variety of folks arrested.
Amiin Harun, an immigration lawyer of Somali descent in Minneapolis, informed ABC Information in an interview on Wednesday that the overwhelming majority of Somalis residing in Minnesota are residents, everlasting residents or documented asylum seekers.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin informed ABC Information on Wednesday that the company enforces the legal guidelines of the nation.
“What makes somebody a goal of ICE is just not their race or ethnicity, however the truth that they’re within the nation illegally,” McLaughlin stated in her assertion. “We don’t talk about future or potential operations.”
McLaughlin didn’t reply to ABC Information’ query about whether or not ICE enforcement had already launched in Minnesota.
Federal officers from ICE and different businesses stand guard throughout an immigration raid of a house in St. Paul, Minnesota, November 25, 2025.
Tim Evans/Reuters
Harun informed ABC Information on Wednesday that considered one of his shoppers who has everlasting standing to be within the U.S. was visited by ICE brokers at her house on Tuesday. The lawyer stated the brokers occupied her residence for 3 hours earlier than she was capable of present proof of her authorized standing, inflicting her a lot nervousness and concern.
“I do not need them in our nation; I will be sincere with you. Anyone will say, ‘Oh, that is not politically appropriate.’ I do not care. I do not need them in our nation. Their nation is not any good for a motive. Their nation stinks,” Trump stated of Somali immigrants in final Tuesday’s Cupboard assembly. “And we will go the unsuitable means if we preserve taking in rubbish into our nation.”
Osman appeared saddened when ABC Information requested his ideas on the president’s remarks about his group.
“The concern of getting your entire nation simply look and see us, and take a look at us as rubbish and fewer human,” the councilman stated. “No human is a rubbish.”
Trump’s feedback got here a day earlier than Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer introduced in a press release obtained by ABC Information on Wednesday that the committee has began an investigation into claims of fraud that middle on Minnesota’s Somali group.
Previous to Trump’s Cupboard assembly feedback, a Nov. 30 New York Instances investigation detailed claims from regulation enforcement that over the previous 5 years, “fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, as scores of people made small fortunes by establishing corporations that billed state businesses for hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of social providers that have been by no means offered.”
Osman conceded that there very properly may have been fraud going down with sure people.
“There’s a strategy of justice,” Osman informed ABC Information on Wednesday. “There’s that course of, however we shouldn’t be having the entire whole group blamed.”
Estimates of the theft have been estimated at $300 million by prosecutors, in keeping with the AP. The variety of defendants, whose circumstances are nonetheless being processed, is roughly 78, the AP reported.
“There are over 80,000 folks in Minnesota who’re Somalis,” Minnesota State Sen. Zaynab Mohamed informed ABC Information in an interview on Friday. “So we’re speaking about few individuals who have dedicated crimes.”
Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed stated that Somalis have added a terrific deal to the financial progress of Minnesota.
ABC Information
Comer — a Republican — has despatched letters to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Legal professional Basic Keith Ellison in search of paperwork, communications and information as a part of the investigation, the Home Oversight Committee stated in a press release final week.
“The Committee has critical issues about the way you because the Governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration, allowed hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to be stolen,” Comer wrote to Walz, in keeping with the Home Oversight Committee’s Wednesday assertion.
Walz stated in a press convention on Thursday that his workplace is working to deliver these concerned in fraud in Minnesota to justice, however stated it may be carried out with out generalizations about a complete group of individuals.
“You are able to do that with out being racist and vile and placing folks in danger,” Walz stated at a Thursday information convention. “You are able to do that with out canceling packages that enhance folks’s lives as a result of just a few folks took benefit of the system.”
Legal professional Basic Keith Ellison didn’t mince phrases when referring to Trump and ICE’s deployment in Minnesota.
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a Cupboard Assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, December 2, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
“Donald Trump’s disgraceful assaults on Minnesota’s Somali group are injecting extra of his toxic racism into our beloved house state,” Ellison stated in an X publish on Tuesday. “Listening to him single out our folks primarily based solely on their race and nation of origin is downright disgusting.”
Minnesota has the biggest Somali group within the U.S. with roughly 87,000 residents, in keeping with the AP. Most have been coming for the reason that Nineteen Nineties to flee a protracted civil conflict in Somalia.
Throughout his Cupboard assembly on Tuesday, Trump stated that Somali immigrants are extremely depending on the U.S. social security internet and add little.
“We’re your docs, your nurses,” Mohamed stated to ABC Information in an interview on Friday. “We’re the people who find themselves caring for your dad and mom when you go to work.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated in a Thursday press convention that the Somali group is a part of the “material” of Minneapolis and makes town a “higher place”.
“We’ve got obtained reviews about a variety of scattered incidents wherein federal brokers have been concerned in some type of exercise. In lots of circumstances, these actions are largely constructed round terrorizing folks,” Frey stated at a information convention on Thursday.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, talking at a information convention, Dec. 4, 2025, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Steve Karnowski/AP
Trump stated in a Reality Social publish final month that he would finish Non permanent Protected Standing for Somalis in Minnesota, a lawful safeguard from deportation for immigrants from sure international locations experiencing hardship. Harun informed ABC Information on Wednesday that roughly 705 Somalis nationwide are coated by TPS.
“This nation has a historical past of various ethnic teams being focused at totally different instances — whether or not it is the Italians, the Irish, the Japanese, the Native Individuals, African Individuals. That is simply what’s occurring to the Somali group,” Harun stated to ABC Information. “I’d simply urge all of us to face collectively and to defend. When considered one of us is attacked, we’re all being attacked.”
ABC Information’ Justin Fishel, Hannah Demissie, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray, Alexandra Fantastic, Oren Oppenheim and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
