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President launches derogatory attacks saying ‘all they do is b****’ as federal agents prepare for Minnesota operations
Alex Woodwardin New YorkTuesday 02 December 2025 20:27 GMTComments
CloseTrump brands Ilhan Omar and Somalis in Minnesota 'garbage' in extraordinary rant
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Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to arrest hundreds of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis after the president responded to the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., with sweeping restrictions on immigration.
In remarks at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said Somalia is “barely a country” and accused refugees in Minnesota of having “ripped off that state for billions of dollars, every year, and they contribute nothing.”
“We don’t want them in our country,” he said. “Their country stinks … When they come from hell, they complain, they do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to their country and fix it.”
The president has used the shooting to rail against Somali immigrants in Minnesota despite the suspect being an Afghan national who received asylum in the United States under Trump earlier this year.
Trump — who has routinely used derogatory and inflammatory language to describe Minnesota’s Somali population and Somali Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar — has baselessly alleged Somali immigrants are “taking over” the state and “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”
open image in galleryDonald Trump lashed out at Somali immigrants and refugees December 2 as his administration prepares for sweeping ICE arrests in Minnesota, home to one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the wake of a brutal civil war (AFP via Getty Images)“Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said Tuesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to deploy so-called strike teams made up of roughly 100 federal law enforcement officers to go after Somalis with final deportation orders, though immigrants who are still seeking legal status could be caught up in the raids. The New York Times first reported the directive.
“Every day, ICE enforces the laws of the nation across the country,” Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent in response to questions about the operation.
“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,” she said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the prospect of federal agents surging into the city is “a frightening moment for our Somali community.”
“That’s not American. That’s not what we are about,” he said during a press conference Tuesday.
Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, who is from Somalia, added that “Somali Americans are here to stay.”
“We love this state. We love this country,” he said. “This is home. We’re not going anywhere.”
open image in galleryMinneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman said Somali Americans are ‘not going anywhere’ after the Trump administration threatened to deploy dozens of federal agents into the city (REUTERS)In the aftermath of last week’s attack on National Guard members, Trump announced a barrage of anti-immigration policies, including a “permanent” pause on immigration from “Third World Countries” and a threat to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized immigrants “who undermine domestic tranquillity.”
He also threatened to “end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country” and deport noncitizens who are deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have also “halted all asylum decisions.”
More than 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota, making the state the largest Somali diaspora community in the world in the wake of a brutal civil war that broke out in the 1990s in the East African nation. The vast majority are U.S. citizens.
Omar, whose family fled Somalia to escape civil war when she was a young girl, became a citizen more than two decades ago. Trump has falsely said she “probably” entered the country illegally and described her as “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”
The Trump administration has also threatened to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, though only a small number of Somalis in the country are still protected by the program, which temporarily grants immigrants facing humanitarian crises in their home countries legal permissions to live and work in the United States.
As of March, there were 705 Somalis covered under TPS, according to the Congressional Research Service. Nearly three-quarters of all Somali immigrants in the United States are naturalized citizens, according to the Census Bureau.
Since taking office, the Trump administration effectively “de-legalized” tens of thousands of immigrants by striking TPS status for several countries while simultaneously issuing sweeping travel bans that prevent them from returning to the United States should they be deported to to their home countries.
open image in galleryMinnesota state Senator Omar Fateh, right, alongside Rep. Ilhan Omar, have both been targets of Trump’s anti-immigrant attacks targeting Somali immigrants and refugees in the state (Getty Images)Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also announced the agency is launching an investigation to determine whether government funding in the state was diverted to the Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia.
The president has also labeled Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” under the state’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee alongside Kamala Harris.
The White House this week accused Somalis in Minneapolis of ripping off more than $1 billion from American taxpayers, citing a fraud investigation into a government program that supported social services.
Roughly 60 people have been convicted as part of the probe, and state and local officials have accused the administration of broadly smearing an entire community based on the alleged actions of accused fraudsters.
ICE’s latest operation follows surges of federal agents into Democratic-led cities across the country, including heavily armed and armored Customs and Border Patrol officers storming through Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina, which were met with fierce resistance from protesters who alleged violent and indiscriminate use of force against demonstrations.
Walz, who has repeatedly pushed back against the administration’s characterizations of Somali communities in the state, 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. “And for him to just randomly decide to do this, it makes no sense. 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.”
The Independent has requested comment from representatives for Walz and Omar.
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