Some members of Minnesota’s Somali community said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have already begun enforcement operations in the state.
Minneapolis Councilman Jamal Osman, who is of Somali descent, told ABC News in an interview last Wednesday that ESL courses, places of worship and homes have been attacked.
The ICE deployment to Minnesota comes as President Donald Trump mentioned Minnesota’s large Somali community at last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, saying he didn’t want those from the northeast African country in the United States because “they don’t contribute anything.”
“This is not the America I imagine,” Osman said. “What we are seeing is not just politics; it is dangerous.”
Minnesotan Jamal Osman, who is of Somali descent, was saddened to hear President Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about his community.
ABC News
The councilman said those with Social Security numbers and work permits, and those awaiting asylum interviews, have been targeted, as have American citizens. Osman said people are afraid to leave their homes and advises people of Somali descent to carry passports everywhere.
“[I] I never knew the day would come when you would have to show your legal document in the United States. [because you look Somali]”Osman told ABC News on Wednesday. “But the reality is that people don’t leave home without their passport.”
ICE said Thursday that agents had arrested 12 people in their enforcement operation in Minnesota, the Associated Press reported. Of them, six are Mexican citizens, five are from Somalia and one is from El Salvador, according to the news service.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for an update on the number of people arrested.
Amiin Harun, an immigration attorney of Somali descent in Minneapolis, told ABC News in an interview Wednesday that the vast majority of Somalis living in Minnesota are citizens, permanent residents or documented asylum seekers.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News on Wednesday that the agency enforces the nation’s laws.
“What makes someone a target for ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally,” McLaughlin said in his statement. “We do not discuss future or potential operations.”
McLaughlin did not respond to ABC News’ question about whether ICE enforcement had already begun in Minnesota.
Federal officers from ICE and other agencies stand guard during an immigration raid at a home in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Nov. 25, 2025.
Tim Evans/Reuters
Harun told ABC News on Wednesday that one of his clients who has permanent status in the United States was visited by ICE agents at her home on Tuesday. The lawyer said that the agents occupied her residence for three hours before she could present evidence of her legal status, which caused her great anxiety and fear.
“I don’t want them in our country; I’ll be honest with you. Someone will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ “And we are going down the wrong path if we continue to introduce garbage into our country.”
Osman appeared saddened when asked by ABC News for his opinion on the president’s comments about his community.
“The fear that the entire nation will look at us and look at us, and look at us as trash and less human,” the councilman said. “No human being is trash.”
Trump’s comments came a day before House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced in a statement obtained by ABC News on Wednesday that the committee had launched an investigation into fraud allegations focusing on Minnesota’s Somali community.
Ahead of Trump’s Cabinet meeting comments, a Nov. 30 New York Times investigation They detailed claims by law enforcement that over the past five years, “fraud took root in the pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, as dozens of people made small fortunes by creating companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never delivered.”
Osman admitted that it is very possible that fraud occurred with certain people.
“There is a process of justice,” Osman told ABC News on Wednesday. “There is that process, but we shouldn’t blame the entire community.”
Prosecutors estimated the theft at $300 million, according to the AP. The number of defendants, whose cases are still pending, is approximately 78, AP reported.
“There are over 80,000 people in Minnesota who are Somalis,” Minnesota state Sen. Zaynab Mohamed told ABC News in an interview Friday. “So we are talking about few people who have committed crimes.”
Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed said Somalis have contributed a lot to Minnesota’s economic growth.
ABC News
Comer, a Republican, sent letters to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison requesting documents, communications and records as part of the investigation, the House Oversight Committee said in a statement last week.
“The Committee has serious concerns about how you, as governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration allowed millions of dollars to be stolen,” Comer wrote to Walz, according to the House Oversight Committee’s Wednesday statement.
Walz said at a news conference Thursday that his office is working to bring to justice those involved in fraud in Minnesota, but he said it can be done without generalizing about an entire group of people.
“You can do that without being racist and vile and without putting people at risk,” Walz said at a news conference Thursday. “You can do that without canceling programs that improve people’s lives because some people took advantage of the system.”
Attorney General Keith Ellison did not mince words when referring to Trump and the ICE deployment in Minnesota.
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, December 2, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
“Donald Trump’s shameful attacks on Minnesota’s Somali community are injecting more of his poisonous racism into our beloved home state,” Ellison said in an X post on Tuesday. “To hear him single out our people based solely on their race and country of origin is downright disgusting.”
Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the United States, with approximately 87,000 residents, according to the AP. Most have come since the 1990s to escape a protracted civil war in Somalia.
During his Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said Somali immigrants rely heavily on the U.S. social safety net and contribute little.
“We are your doctors, your nurses,” Mohamed told ABC News in an interview Friday. “We are the people who take care of your parents while you go to work.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference Thursday that the Somali community is part of the “fabric” of Minneapolis and makes the city a “better place.”
“We have received reports of a number of scattered incidents in which federal agents were involved in some type of activity. In many cases, those activities rely heavily on terrorizing people,” Frey said at a news conference Thursday.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, speaking at a news conference, Dec. 4, 2025, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Steve Karnowski/AP
Trump said in a Truth Social post last month that he would end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota, a legal safeguard against deportation for immigrants from certain countries facing hardship. Harun told ABC News on Wednesday that approximately 705 Somalis nationwide are covered by TPS.
“This country has a history of different ethnic groups being attacked at different times, whether it’s the Italians, the Irish, the Japanese, Native Americans and African-Americans. This is exactly what is happening to the Somali community,” Harun told ABC News. “I would just urge all of us to stay united and defend ourselves. When one of us is attacked, we are all being attacked.”
ABC News’ Justin Fishel, Hannah Demissie, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray, Alexandra Fine, Oren Oppenheim and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
