Protesters gathered outside the Signature Aviation base near the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport on Wednesday to decry President Donald Trump’s targeting of Minnesota’s Somali community.
Supported by the union groups Minnesota 50501, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and UNITE HERE, protesters held signs that read “Stop deporting our neighbors” and “No ICE, No troops, No Kings.” Others directly called out the President, brandishing placards with statements such as “Dump Trump” and “This is our country, not his.”
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The rally was held at the airport facility which some demonstrators identified as a flying base for deportation flights. TIME has been unable to independently verify if this is the case.
Amid calls to “de-ICE our planes,” one of the organizers from UNITE HERE Local 17, Minnesota’s hospitality union, told dozens of protesters the “labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our communities to fight for immigrant workers rights.”
Defending the extensive Somali community in Minnesota, when asked what they will do now that “Somalis are under attack,” the crowd vowed to “fight back.”
Said Mohamed, an Uber and Lyft driver who attended the protest, said the President’s recent remarks about Somalis have “hurt” the community. “They really feel real disgusted that he [Trump] is dividing us by Somalis, Mexicans, Asians, Black, white. And that’s not what America is about,” Mohamed told Associated Press. He added that some members of the community are “very scared.”
Trump has significantly ramped up his immigration crackdown in the wake of the Nov. 26 D.C. shooting that killed West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and left her colleague, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, in critical condition.
The lone suspect in the shooting has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national who traveled to the U.S. in 2021 under “Operation Allies Welcome.” Lakanwal qualified for the resettlement program as he worked for various U.S. government agencies in Afghanistan, including a CIA-backed unit in Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban. Although a motive for his crime has yet to be established, the incident has become a touchstone in the debate surrounding immigration-related policies, with Trump and his Administration announcing a series of new security measures—many of which have been criticized as collective punishments that single out vulnerable communities.
Although there is no indication that the suspect in the shooting had any connection to Somalia, Trump has renewed his targeting of the community by making a series of inflammatory, anti-Somali remarks.
Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that under Trump’s direction they will be reexamining all green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern.” Somalia was among the countries listed. There have since been unconfirmed reports that a new ICE operation is set to target Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to around 84,000 people of Somali descent, making it the largest population in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
After claiming during a Thanksgiving call with service members that Somalis “have caused a lot of trouble” for the U.S., Trump has since doubled down on his stance.
In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump called the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, a “fool” for saying he is proud to have the largest Somali population in the country. He then accused the Somali community of “destroying” Minnesota.
“These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country,” he claimed, before personally targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democratic Congresswoman for Minnesota, who was born in Somalia. “She shouldn’t be allowed to be a Congresswoman,” said Trump, arguing that she should leave the U.S.
Trump went on to claim that Somalia is “considered by many to be the worst country on Earth.”
The President has long pointed to instances of “corruption” and “fraud” in Minnesota involving Somalis and welfare programs, seemingly blaming the community as a whole rather than the individuals involved.
The nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future, which had reported ties to the Somali community, was implicated in an alleged $300 million fraud scheme with more than 70 defendants during an investigation into COVID-19 relief fraud. The federally-funded program was meant to feed children during the pandemic, but instead, according to prosecutors, individuals billed Minnesota agencies for meals that did not exist. Federal prosecutors said the company owners kept the money for themselves. In August, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, who was born in Somalia, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in the scheme.
The midwestern state has also been rocked by what the United States Attorney’s Office is calling the “Autism Fraud Scheme.” In September, Asha Farhan Hassan was charged with wire fraud for her role in the $14 million scheme. According to federal investigators, Hassan and others “devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention benefit, a publicly-funded Minnesota Health Care Program that offers medically necessary services to people under the age of 21 with autism spectrum disorder.”
Hassan was also charged with participating in the Feeding Our Future scheme, highlighting concerns that the cases of fraud within the state are linked.
“To be clear, this is not an isolated scheme. 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. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network. The challenge is immense, but our work continues,” read a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Meanwhile, during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump once again targeted members of the Somali community, saying their home nation is “barely a country” and calling them “garbage.”
“I don’t want them in our country,” said Trump, adding that he doesn’t care if his statements are “not politically correct.”
“Our country’s at a tipping point, we could go bad, one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country,” he claimed.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who ran against the Trump-Vance ticket as Kamala Harris’ pick for Vice President during the 2024 presidential campaign, has strongly condemned Trump’s inflammatory remarks against the Somali community in his state.
“He’s demonzing an entire community, folks who are in the professions—educators, artists, doctors, lawyers—they bring the diversity and energy to a place like Minnesota,” said Walz during a Nov. 30 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Walz argued that anyone involved in fraudulent schemes should be held to account, but urged against targeting Somalis as a whole. They have “created a vibrant community that makes Minnesota and this country better,” he said.
Rep. Omar echoed Walz’s stance, telling CNN on Wednesday that Trump’s rhetoric against her and other Somalis is an example of him “trying to scapegoat and deflect” from his own “failures.”
Democratic Representatives Gregory W. Meeks of New York and Sara Jacobs of California, along with Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Cory Booker of New Jersey have also condemned Trump’s remarks about Somali immigrants in the U.S.
“Instead of using the power of the presidency to bring our country together, President Trump chose to attack an American immigrant community, the overwhelming majority of whom are law-abiding and have made many positive contributions to the United States,” they said on Wednesday in a joint statement, which labeled Trump’s rhetoric as “xenophobic and unacceptable.”
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