Trump To Somali Immigrants: ‘We Don’t Want Them’

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he does not want Somali immigrants in the United States and urged them to return to their home country. The remarks came during a Cabinet meeting at the White House as his administration reportedly prepared to deploy federal agents to Minneapolis for immigration enforcement operations targeting Somalis.

"They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country," Trump told reporters. "Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don't want them in our country."

The president made no distinction between Somali citizens and non-citizens. He specifically attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who emigrated from Somalia as a child in 1995.

"Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage," Trump said. "These aren't people that work. These aren't people that say, 'Let's go, c'mon. Let's make this place great.' These are people that do nothing but complain."

Trump added that Somalis should "go back to where they came from and fix it."

Omar responded on social media. "His obsession with me is creepy," she wrote. "I hope he gets the help he desperately needs."

Fraud scandal cited as justification

Trump's comments came when a reporter asked whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz should resign over a fraud scandal involving state social services programs. The New York Times has reported that roughly $1 billion in taxpayer money was stolen through three separate fraud schemes meant to support housing for disabled adults, food security for children, and services for children with autism.

Approximately 59 people have been convicted on criminal charges related to the schemes, and most are of East African descent, according to the Times. Trump has used the scandal to broadly criticize the state's Somali population.

"Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions, every year, billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing," Trump said. "The welfare is like 88 percent or something. They contribute nothing."

Neither Walz nor Omar has been implicated in the fraud investigation. Walz told NBC News on Sunday that the fraudsters are going to prison and that "to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy."

Trump called Walz "a grossly incompetent man" and said "there's something wrong with him."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Monday that his agency would investigate whether taxpayer dollars from Minnesota had "been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab," citing a recent story from a conservative outlet that made such claims. Al-Shabaab is an al-Qaida-linked militant group that controls parts of Somalia.

ICE operation reportedly planned

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning an operation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area this week focusing on Somalis with final deportation orders. The operation would use "strike teams" of roughly 100 federal law enforcement officers brought in from across the country, according to the Times.

A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman would not confirm the operation. "Every day, ICE enforces the laws of the nation across the country," assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally. We do not discuss future or potential operations."

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media Monday night that she is "recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies." A source familiar with the plan told NBC News that about 30 countries would be on the list.

Trump last week threatened to terminate temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota. A Congressional Research Service report from August put the number of Somalis covered by TPS nationwide at just 705. Nearly three-quarters of all Somali immigrants in the United States are naturalized citizens, according to the Census Bureau.

Minneapolis officials push back

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey held a news conference Tuesday and said reports of 100 ICE agents pursuing Somali immigrants in the city were "credible." He said the city stands with the Somali community.

"Targeting Somali people means that due process will be violated, mistakes will be made, and let's be clear, it means that American citizens will be detained for no other reason than they look Somali," Frey said. "That is not now nor will it ever be a legitimate reason" for a person to be arrested.

Responding to Trump's comments that Somalis should be expelled from the country, Frey said, "He's wrong, and we want them here."

Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, who is from Somalia, said "Somali Americans are here to stay."

"We love this state. We love this country," he said. "This is home. We're not going anywhere."

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said his department does not assist with immigration enforcement and does not receive advance notice of federal operations. He asked residents who see masked individuals claiming to be law enforcement to call 911.

Khalid Mohamed, who works for the city of Minneapolis, told the Washington Post that he witnessed what appeared to be an immigration arrest Monday evening at a Somali mall in his neighborhood. He said a man wearing a mask and a Cubs hat detained a Latino man, leaving his wife and children behind in their car with the engine running.

"She had three kids, and she was crying; she was very confused. She had a little tiny baby, and it was cold outside," Mohamed said. "ICE agents took the guy and left the car in the street."

Context of attacks on Somali community

More than 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota, making the state home to the largest Somali diaspora community in the world. The community formed in the wake of a brutal civil war that broke out in the East African nation in the 1990s. The vast majority are U.S. citizens.

Trump has a history of targeting countries in certain parts of the world with inflammatory rhetoric. In 2018, he labeled Haiti, El Salvador, and a group of African nations with a vulgar epithet during discussion of a bipartisan immigration deal.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, repeatedly targeted the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, falsely claiming that immigrants there were stealing and eating residents' pets. The community faced bomb threats and school evacuations as the conspiracy theories spread on social media.

Trump's remarks Tuesday came days after his administration announced it is halting all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. The suspect in last week's incident is originally from Afghanistan, not Somalia, but Trump has used the moment to raise questions about immigrants from multiple nations.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, called the latest ICE operation a "PR stunt."

"Demonizing an entire community, folks who are in the professions, educators, artists, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, they bring the diversity and the energy to a place like Minnesota," Walz told MSNBC Sunday. "Do your job. Get the criminals out. Secure our border. But do it with dignity and respect to the American tradition of respecting immigrants as refugees as a beacon of hope."(title - attribution)

_{By: Atlas}

Trump says Somali immigrants should leave, calls Rep. Omar 'garbage'