{"id":331292,"date":"2025-12-05T03:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331292\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T03:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:51:09","slug":"many-somali-americans-most-of-them-u-s-citizens-are-fearful-of-trumps-immigration-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331292\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Somali Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, are fearful of Trump\u2019s immigration policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Many in Minnesota\u2019s Somali community \u2014 even those who are citizens \u2014 say they are fearful after Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched an operation in the region and after President Donald Trump\u2019s rants against Somalia<\/a> and Somali immigrants<\/a> living in the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is leaving their homes right now,\u201d a 21-year-old Minnesota native of Somali descent, who asked to not be named for fear of harassment, told NBC News<\/a>. \u201cThey don\u2019t even have anything to run for. They\u2019re citizens. They\u2019ve been living here for years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Many of the shops at Karmel Mall \u2014 a hub of Somali businesses, merchants and restaurants in Minneapolis \u2014 were closed Thursday, and the normally busy mall was quieter than usual. Some establishments had signs that read \u201cNo ICE.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"KarmelNormally busy, Karmel Mall, a hub for Somali businesses, merchants and restaurants in Minneapolis, was closed Thursday.Maggie Vespa for NBC News<\/p>\n

While a senior law enforcement official previously said ICE officers are not specifically targeting Somali immigrants<\/a>, the operation in Minneapolis coincided with Trump\u2019s saying Wednesday that Somalis have \u201cdestroyed Minnesota\u201d and \u201cour country.\u201d<\/a> Trump spoke following news reports<\/a> that dozens of people of Somali descent have been convicted in fraud schemes related to Covid relief that netted over $1 billion. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mistakes of a few individuals can never be used to generalize or stereotype an entire community,\u201d Imam Hassan Jama, executive director of the Islamic Association of North America, said Thursday. He added that the majority \u201cof Somali Americans in Minnesota are hardworking, reasonable and deeply committed to contributing to the prosperity of our state and our country.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump has also directed comments at Rep. Ilhan Omar<\/a>, D-Minn., who fled the civil war in Somalia with her family and lived in a Kenyan refugee camp before she moved to the United States and became a citizen. Trump called her \u201cgarbage\u201d and \u201ca real terrible person\u201d during a tirade about Somalis on Tuesday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Omar, a progressive Democrat whom Trump has mocked and targeted<\/a> for years, responded Tuesday on X<\/a>: \u201cHis obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.\u201d <\/p>\n

There are more than 98,000 Somali immigrants in the United States<\/a>, and about 83% are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to census data. In Minnesota, most of the 80,000 people of Somali ancestry are U.S. citizens. Nearly 6 in 10 were born in this country or are legal permanent residents.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara said in an interview that ICE arrests had been rising in the Minneapolis area for the last month, with officers predominantly targeting the Latino community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat changed this week was it was the first time people from the community reaching out over the Thanksgiving weekend to say that Somalis were being targeted,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara sparked conservative backlash at a news conference Tuesday, telling residents to call 911 if they\u2019re unsure whether the masked strangers forcing residents into unmarked vehicles are law enforcement officers. Trump\u2019s \u201cborder czar,\u201d Tom Homan, called the message \u201cshameful.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara reiterated the message in an interview Thursday, saying the FBI urged law enforcement agencies this year to be on the alert for criminals impersonating ICE agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to let the community know if somebody or some people show up that are armed, that are claiming to be in law enforcement, but you don\u2019t see any badges or you\u2019re not sure who\u2019s there, you don\u2019t see police cars, and they\u2019re trying to get you to open the door to their house, absolutely, people should call 911,\u201d O\u2019Hara said.<\/p>\n

Jamal Osman, a Minneapolis City Council member who was born in Somalia, urged his constituents \u201cto carry their passport around.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling them to carry documents like we live in 1930s, 1940s in Germany. This is sadly what we are seeing in America,\u201d Osman told NBC News.<\/p>\n

\"AA sign at a business in Karmel Mall declares, \u201cNo ICE entry without a court order.\u201dMaggie Vespa for NBC News<\/p>\n

Residents and community leaders in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area say they have spotted immigration agents in their neighborhoods and gotten anecdotal reports about Somalis\u2019 being detained<\/a> this week after a senior law enforcement official confirmed the immigration operation in Minneapolis was underway.<\/p>\n

In a news release Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that officers had arrested \u201csome of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including child sex offenders, domestic abusers, and violent gang members.\u201d The release included photos and brief descriptions of 12 people arrested during what DHS dubbed Operation Metro Surge. Five of those listed were from Somalia, according to the release. One was from EL Salvador, and the rest were from Mexico.<\/p>\n

Asked about Osman\u2019s comments recommending that Somali Americans carry their U.S. passports, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said people \u201cwho are not here illegally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear. Elected officials choosing to fearmonger by distorting reality are doing a great disservice to our country.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving dangerous criminals from our streets makes it safer for everyone \u2014 including business owners and their customers,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Decades of refugee resettlements and growing American-born families have turned Minnesota into the home of the country\u2019s largest Somali population<\/a>. Since 1993, thousands of Somali immigrants have fled war and instability in the East African country. <\/p>\n

According to the State Department, in the last five years, the United States has admitted about 9,000 Somali refugees<\/a>, many of whom later became eligible to apply for green cards and eventually for citizenship. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people who have come to this country to flee persecution, war,\u201d Zakaria Abukar, a Somalia-born tech entrepreneur in Minnesota, told NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Abukar settled in Rochester, Minnesota, nearly three decades ago, when he was 6 years old. \u201cMany of us have gone through the legal channels,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Those legal channels have narrowed for Somalis. Most recently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services paused all immigration requests for applicants from 19 countries<\/a> the Trump administration deemed \u201chigh risk<\/a>\u201d in June, including Somalia, and launched a \u201creexamination of every Green Card<\/a>\u201d granted to people from those countries of concern. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel hunted,\u201d Osman said. \u201cThat is unacceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nicole Acevedo reported from New York and Maggie Vespa and Kailani Koenig from Minneapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Many in Minnesota\u2019s Somali community \u2014 even those who are citizens \u2014 say they are fearful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-331292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}