When authorities found that an Afghan asylee was the suspect in a shooting near the White House last week, President Donald Trump used the opportunity to push a “reverse migration” agenda aimed at demonizing refugees and other foreigners in America. But in his rants, he repeatedly mentioned one particular nationality: Somalis.
In response to a reporter’s question during the President’s call with troops on Thanksgiving, Trump admitted that there was “nothing” linking Somalis to the shooting. Still, he claimed, without evidence, that Somalis “have caused a lot of trouble” for the U.S.
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The day after the shooting near the White House, Trump ordered a review of green cards issued to migrants from 19 countries of concern, including Somalia. And, in a Thanksgiving message posted on Truth Social where he announced that he would “permanently pause” migration from “Third World” countries, he particularly blasted the Somali community in Minnesota. The state has the largest population of those with reported Somali heritage in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and Trump claimed they are “completely taking over” the state.
But even before the shooting, Trump had already scrutinized the Somali presence in Minnesota. During his first term, he targeted them at a rally, saying “leaders in Washington brought large numbers of refugees” to Minnesota “without considering the impact on schools and communities and taxpayers.”
More recently, he claimed in a Nov. 21 Truth Social post that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing,” and he announced he would end Temporary Protected Statuses for Somalis “effective immediately,” causing alarm among the Somali population in Minnesota.
Here’s what to know.
Why are there so many Somalis in Minnesota?
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States—more than 61,000 persons of the state’s approximately 5.7-million population have reported Somali ancestry, according to census data. Since the early 1990s, Somalis have consistently arrived in the country, often as refugees, from the East African country’s civil war. Many Somali refugees found Minnesota appealing because of the available social services and welfare programs that helped them resettle and, over time, because of the growing diaspora that had already resettled there.
Over time, Somalis have become integrated into the community and have played larger roles in local and even national government, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, who in 2018 became the first Somali-American elected to Congress and has been a frequent target of Trump’s attacks.
Citizens of Somalia were first given TPS status in September 1991, under the presidency of Republican President George H.W. Bush. The Administration back then granted the status, recognizing that there “exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in Somalia that prevent aliens who are nationals of Somalia from returning to Somalia in safety.” Since then, the TPS status for Somalis has been either extended or redesignated 27 times in recognition of the ongoing conflict in the nation, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service earlier this year, with the latest extension coming during the Biden Administration, when then Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed the end date of Somali’s TPS status to March 17, 2026.
“It was never meant to be an asylum program,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press briefing on Sunday, in defense of Trump’s decision to end the TPS designation for nationals of Somalia as well as other nations, including Venezuela and Nicaragua. “It was always meant to be put in place after an incident or an event on a temporary basis, and that’s what the evaluation will be.”
Trump posted on Truth Social: “Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.” He added, “Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!”
Such a revocation would put at risk approximately 700 Somali nationals nationwide who had TPS status as of March this year, as most Somalis in the state are American nationals.
What do the Somalis in Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz have to do with fraud allegations?
In Trump’s latest tirades against the Somalis in the state, he flagged supposed incidences of corruption and fraud involving Somalis living in Minnesota, particularly in relation to welfare programs.
A COVID-19 era child nutrition program operated by nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future, with reported ties to the Somali community, was implicated in an alleged $300 million fraud scheme with more than 70 defendants. Dubbed by the Justice Department as “the largest Covid-19 fraud scheme in the country,” the case involved individuals creating companies that billed Minnesota agencies for meals that did not exist. Federal prosecutors said the company owners pocketed the funds instead, spending them on luxuries like cars and overseas trips. In August, a Somali-born leader of the fraud scheme was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
In September, eight individuals were also charged with wire fraud for allegedly defrauding the now-defunct Housing Stabilization Services Program, a component of Minnesota’s Medicaid offerings. The defendants were accused of collectively billing Medicaid about $8 million by offering vulnerable individuals—many of whom were due to be released from drug or alcohol rehabilitation facilities—assistance to look for housing, only for these individuals to remain homeless.
The same month, another fraud case emerged, this time involving the state’s autism program. A Somali woman and her partners allegedly falsely certified children to qualify for autism programs and handed their parents pay-offs for their cooperation. The defendant intends to plead guilty to the charge against her, her lawyer told the New York Times.
“From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said in a statement after announcing the autism case. “Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network.”
The scale and frequency of fraud in the state have raised questions about where the funds are going. A November report by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo from the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute claimed to connect money flowing out of Minnesota to the terror group Al-Shabaab, citing federal counterterrorism sources.
A group purporting to represent more than 480 current staff members of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services have alleged that Gov. Tim Walz, a vocal Trump critic who ran as the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2024, was “100% responsible for massive fraud” in the state. In a lengthy statement posted on X over the weekend, the staffers claimed they informed Walz “early on” of ongoing fraud, but instead of addressing the concerns, he “systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports.” TIME has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.
How are Democrats responding?
Democrats have condemned the accusations targeting Somalis in Minnesota.
Rep. Omar, in response to Trump’s threat of ending TPS benefits immediately for Somalis, said on Nov. 24: “Even little kids in 8th grade know that that is not an authority that the President has, and can wield.” The federal government is required by statute to publish a notice in the Federal Register 60 days before ending a TPS protection.
Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison also suggested in a post on X that he may seek legal recourse if Trump immediately removes the TPS protections. “Trump’s announcement of termination of Somali TPS holders in Minnesota is legally problematic—while a president does have a lot of authority to designate and revoke TPS, he cannot legally wield that power to discriminate against an ethnic group or to target a state, like MN,” Ellison said. This ain’t over.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D, Minn.) on CNN Sunday disputed that Somalis in particular are a problem in the state. “Every state has a problem with crime, but what the President has done here is taken a horrific crime that occurred in Washington, D.C., where one beloved guard member is still struggling for his life, another was shot and killed. … He took that case, and then he went 2,400 miles away to Somalia and somehow indicted an entire group of people.”
“He tries to stoke division,” Klobuchar said, “and make people hate each other.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—whose leadership is now being tested as his Republican opponent in the 2026 elections, Republican Kristin Robbins, has made the fight against fraud central to her campaign—told NBC Sunday: “We’re doing everything we can. But to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it’s lazy.”
And on X, Walz appeared to accuse Trump, who just granted clemency to a private equity executive who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in $1.6 billion fraud scheme, of hypocrisy, saying, “Just to be clear: There will be no pardons for fraudsters in Minnesota.”
The post What to Know About Trump’s Targeting of Somalis in Minnesota—and Allegations of Fraud appeared first on TIME.
