Trump targets ‘garbage’ Somalis ahead of ICE raids

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - DECEMBER 2022: Mano Ali held her daughter, Iqra, 8, as they waved flags together while waiting for Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to arrive Thursday night, December 15, 2022 in the auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is in town to address the members of the Somali community, the largest outside Africa, after attending the U.S. - Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. this week. (Photo by Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

11 African countries are now barred from applying for visas, asylum, green cards or citizenship in the US

(Image credit: Jeff Wheeler / Star Tribune / Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump Tuesday called Somali immigrants “garbage,” saying they have “ripped off” Minnesota and he doesn’t “want them in our country.” Trump’s comments, at the end of a two-hour Cabinet meeting, came as the Department of Homeland Security prepares to launch an immigration operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to several news organizations. DHS Tuesday night announced it has also suspended all immigration applications for people from Somalia and 18 other non-European countries.

Who said what

Somali immigrants “do nothing but bitch” and “their country stinks,” Trump told reporters. The U.S. “is at a tipping point,” and ”we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.” Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “is garbage,” he added. “She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.” Trump’s ”obsession with me is creepy,“ Omar responded on social media. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

Trump’s “xenophobic tirade” was “shocking in its unapologetic bigotry,” The New York Times said, even for a president with a “long history of insulting Black people, particularly those from African countries.” Eleven of the 19 countries now temporarily barred from applying for visas, asylum, green cards or citizenship under last night’s DHS order are in Africa. All 19 have been under a partial travel ban since June.

What next?

The ICE-led operation in the Twin Cities, home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent, is “expected to target Somali and Afghan immigrants,” The Minnesota Star Tribune said. The raids “could begin in the coming days,” The Associated Press said, and “hundreds of people are expected to be targeted.”

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.