US to target Somalians in Minnesota, source says

NOT HELPING: The Minneapolis mayor said the city’s police officers, many of whom are Somalian, would not work with federal agents in immigration enforcement

• AP, MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota

US authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that would primarily focus on Somalian immigrants living unlawfully in the US, a person familiar with the planning said.

The move comes as US President Donald Trump on Tuesday escalated rhetoric about Minnesota’s sizeable Somalian community, saying he did not want immigrants from the east African country in the US because “they contribute nothing.”

His administration on Tuesday also announced that it was pausing all immigration applications, such as requests for green cards or naturalization, for people from 19 countries, including Somalia, that were banned from travel earlier this year, as part of sweeping immigration changes in the wake of a shooting of two US National Guard members.

The Minnesota enforcement operation could begin in the coming days and is expected to focus on the Minneapolis–St Paul area and people with final orders of deportation, the person said.

Teams of immigration agents would spread across the Twin Cities in what the person described as a directed, high-priority sweep, although the plans remain subject to change.

The prospect of a crackdown is likely to deepen tensions in Minnesota — home to the nation’s largest Somalian community. They have been coming since the 1990s, fleeing their country’s long civil war and drawn by Minnesota’s generous social programs.

An estimated 260,000 people of Somalian descent were living in the US last year, according to the US Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.

The largest population is in the Minneapolis area, home to about 84,000 residents, most of whom are US citizens. Ohio, Washington and California also have significant populations.

Trump has become increasingly focused on Somalians living in the US, saying they “have caused a lot of trouble.”

Community leaders said Trump has inflamed tensions and revived fears of profiling.

The president said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Somalian immigrants are too reliant on the US social safety net and add little.

“I don’t want them in our country,” he said. “Their country is no good for a reason.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against Trump’s depiction of Somalians, saying it “violates the moral fabric of what we stand by in this country as Americans.”

“They have started businesses and created jobs. They have added to the cultural fabric of what Minneapolis is,” Frey said.

The mayor vowed that the city’s police officers, many of whom are Somalian, would not work with any federal agents doing immigration enforcement, saying “it’s not their job.”

Trump also renewed his criticism of US Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who emigrated from Somalia in 1995 as a child.

“We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way, if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said. “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”

On Tuesday, Omar punched back at Trump on social media, saying: “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration said it would be up to US Citizenship and Immigration Services to determine when to lift its pause on immigration applications.

The administration in June banned travel to the US by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access for those from seven others, citing national security concerns.

The ban applied to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, while the restricted access applied to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.