President Trump has recently restated his profound dislike of Somalis living in America, particularly those residing in the state of Minnesota, on numerous occasions and in no uncertain terms. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on 2 December 2025, he stated that Somali refugees in Minnesota had “ripped off that state for billions of dollars, every year, while ‘they contribute nothing.” He also attacked his bête noire, Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American to be elected to Congress as Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota and herself a former child refugee, saying: “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.” Earlier, on 21 November, he had announced that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great state, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing.” At the time, he revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali migrants, which was first granted in September 1991 and extended or redesignated a further 27 times until 17 March 2026. Only 705 Somalis were covered by TPS nationwide as of August 2025. Operation Metro Surge, an ICE operation has been launched, targeting undocumented Somalis in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. On 4 December, according to the Department of Homeland Security: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced they have arrested some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including child sex offenders, domestic abusers, and violent gang members, during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.”
Trump’s attacks on the Somali community were in part felt justified as a response to various fraudulent schemes in the state of Minnesota. Around $300 million was siphoned off a child nutrition programme operated by nonprofit organisation Feeding Our Future, intended to provide free food to children during the COVID-19 pandemic, and spent instead on luxury vehicles, beachfront homes, jewellery, property in Kenya, overseas travel, and the like. In August 2025, 36-year-old Somali-born Abdiaziz Shafii Fatah was sentenced to 28 years in prison for his leading role in what federal prosecutors have described as the largest COVID-19-related fraud case in the US. Of the 78 people to have been charged in connection with the Feeding Our Future programme, 57 have already been convicted. Another eight people were charged in September 2025 with wire fraud to the tune of $8 million involving the Housing Stabilization Services Program. That same month, details of another fraud involving the EIDBI (Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention) Autism Program also came to light.
Large-scale Somali immigration to the US began in the aftermath of a chaotic and protracted civil war that broke out in Somalia after president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in January 1991, leaving behind a power vacuum. Thousands of Somalis escaped to refugee camps in Kenya and were then resettled in the US, among other nations. In the early 1990s, most Somalis arriving in America ended up in Minneapolis, Norfolk (Virginia), and Seattle. Minnesota became a popular destination for Somali refugees, many of whom moved there from other states and went to work in poultry-packing plants, starting with one in the small town of Marshall. They took up jobs in which only a limited knowledge of the English language sufficed. The state’s Progressive political leadership welcomed the Somalis, who benefited from generous social service assistance including subsidised public housing, much of which has since been withdrawn, and were able to engage in local politics.
According to the US Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, an estimated 260,000 people of Somali descent were living in America in 2024, most of them US citizens. The state of Minnesota now has the largest Somali population outside of Somalia. Of the 108,000 Somalis living in Minnesota, 58% are US-born, and 87% of those born abroad are naturalized US citizens. Around 84,000 live in the Twin Cities area, which comprises Minneapolis and St Paul. Despite ongoing integration and some notable successes in local politics, Somalis are concentrated in low-paying jobs, have limited educational opportunities, and often live in poor quality housing. Some Somalis work in transportation (taxi or truck drivers), manufacturing, food processing, healthcare, social care, and educational support roles, while many others are self-employed entrepreneurs, running groceries, clothing stores, and restaurants among others.
Integration has proved a challenge as patriarchal Somalis, united by their Islamic faith and in their requirement for halal outlets and places of worship, have encountered a clash of cultures in midwestern America. They have thus mostly confined themselves to selected neighbourhoods, forming self-sufficient enclaves complete with mosques, community centres, cultural organisations, and financial-assistance networks, and have developed a parallel economy catering to their specific needs, as exemplified by Karmel Mall and by 24 Somali Mall, the largest Somali mall in the US. The Cedars-Riverside neighbourhood in Minneapolis has come to be known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ after Somalia’s capital city.
Somalis in Minnesota justifiably feel threatened, despite unqualified support from the state’s Democratic leadership, which includes mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Melvin Carter of St. Paul. There are undoubtedly some fraudsters, criminals, and sympathisers of al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda to be found among their ranks, and many have yet to learn English and to be assimilated in the American melting pot. All Somalis have, however, been tarred with the same brush as President Trump sets about removing those who have outstayed their deportation orders, and possibly many others. In his current frame of mind, nothing will apparently stop him until this deed is completed.
Ashis Banerjee