{"id":328901,"date":"2025-12-06T17:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/328901\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T17:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:37:13","slug":"holding-my-breath-fear-in-ottawa-after-trump-tirade-against-somali-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/328901\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Holding my breath:\u2019 Fear in Ottawa after Trump tirade against Somali immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Somali Canadians living in Ottawa have condemned U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tirade against Somali immigrants and their country, saying it has stoked fear and concern within the local community.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s invective came during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, soon after reports<\/a> that federal authorities were preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota focused on Somalis living illegally in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Trump called Somali immigrants \u201cgarbage\u201d who \u201ccontribute nothing\u201d to the U.S. and said \u201cI don\u2019t want them in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He specifically disparaged Minnesota\u2019s large Somali population saying, \u201cI see these people ripping it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same day Trump made the remarks, his administration said it paused all immigration applications filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries, citing concerns over national security and public safety. Those countries included Somalia.<\/p>\n

Ottawa, like Minnesota, has a large Somali population and Trump\u2019s derogatory comments have stirred the community. About 10,500 people of Somali ethnic or cultural origin live in the city according to the 2021 census<\/a>, which does not account for anyone who would have arrived in the last four years.<\/p>\n

Many Somalis fled to Canada and the U.S. from the east African country to escape conflict, extremism and an ongoing civil war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like for myself, watching it from the outside here, I felt like I was kind of holding my breath,\u201d said Asli Mahdi, a Somali Canadian born in Ottawa. \u201cEspecially those who are living in Minnesota, I imagine many folks may have been holding their breath too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdirizak Mohamud, a Somali Canadian who lives in Ottawa, said hearing the insults \u201cis quite alarming for Somali families both in the U.S. and Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really kind of generates a lot of fear,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is extremely reckless and it\u2019s very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AbdirizakAbdirizak Mohamud, who lives in Ottawa, is concerned about his family and friends living in Minnesota in the wake of Trump’s insults. (Submitted by Abdirizak Mohamud)<\/p>\n

Mohamud, who has family and friends living in Minnesota and other areas of the U.S., worries the president\u2019s language and attitude towards Somalis could spread and cause more widespread harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that this hate that we\u2019re hearing doesn\u2019t know boundaries,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m worried for my relatives in the United States, but I’m also worried for [the] community here because this kind of hate will cross borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump tirade, ICE operation stoking fear<\/p>\n

On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced arrests in an immigration enforcement operation underway in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The federal agency named and described 12 people arrested since the operation began Monday. Five of those people are from Somalia, according to a media release from the agency.<\/p>\n

\"TheU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Monday. (Tony Gutierrez\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n

This enforcement operation comes a month after Trump announced he would terminate temporary protected status, a legal safeguard against deportation, for Somali migrants in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

In a statement to CBC News Thursday, an ICE spokesperson denied anyone would be targeted on the basis of race or ethnicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

This kind of hate will cross borders,- Abdirizak Mohamud, Somali Canadian<\/p>\n

Yet, there is alarm among the Somali community in the wake of Trump\u2019s insults.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know many of us are very concerned and calling our relatives,\u201d Mohamud said.<\/p>\n

Warsame J. Warsame, another Somali Canadian in Ottawa, said he\u2019s not fearful because he\u2019s lived in Canada for more than 25 years, but, like Mohamud, he also knows many people who live in Minnesota and worries about their safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about many people that live down there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump, we know that he doesn’t care about law and he doesn’t care about facts,\u201d Warsame added. \u201cWhen the law is not followed, of course what will happen is people will be victimized \u2014 people who did not do anything wrong, people who were even born in the United States, but just being of Somali origin will be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

A call for \u2018solidarity\u2019<\/p>\n

The local community says it\u2019s important that the public take a stand against Trump\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel \u2014 and many Somali Canadians or Somali Americans feel \u2014 that they have to reject [this],” Warsame said. “They have to tell the truth,\u201d<\/p>\n

Some, like Mohamud and Mahdi, also want to hear \u201cvocal support\u201d of the Somali community from Canadian officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to see solidarity with the Somali community,\u201d Mohamud said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that that resilience and that overcoming this kind of situation is going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we also need to show our support. Those of us who are not on the ground feeling this kind of hate being thrown at them, we need to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-328901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}