Many people in the Somali community say they feel fearful and angry in the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tirade against Somali communities in Minnesota.
In a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump called Somalis “garbage” and said they “contribute nothing” to the country. He called Somalia “barely a country,” and said he doesn’t want people from the war-torn African nation in the U.S.
Trump made his comments soon after reports that federal authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota focusing on Somalis living illegally in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the planning.
In both the U.S. and Canada, where there are large Somali populations, some Somali community members say this has sparked fear, anger and renewed concerns about safety and discrimination.
Ahmed Abdulkadir, 50, a community advocate in Edmonton, says Trump’s messaging is alarming and he worries that the narrative could put even law-abiding immigrants and citizens at risk.
“Racism, racism, that’s what’s happening,” he told CBC News.
“I’m worried somebody might see the news and assume they are bad people … it could have profound consequences.”
U.S. President Donald Trump went on a three-minute tirade against immigrants from Somalia during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, calling them ‘garbage’ and saying ‘we don’t want them in our country.’ Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the Somali community has been an economic and cultural boon to the area, where about 80,000 people of Somali origin live.
‘People feel insecure and live in fear’
Somalis have been fleeing the Horn of Africa nation for decades, ever since the fall of dictator Siad Barre led to clashes between warlords and wider civil war. Some also fled following the rise of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab extremist group in the mid-2000s, and others have arrived through government sponsored refugee programs.
There are 65,555 people of Somali descent living in private households in Canada, according to the 2021 census. As Public Safety Canada points out, Canada has one of the largest Somali populations in the Western world, and many live in Edmonton.
“We are resilient people. We will survive. Strong Somalia American and Somalia Canadian communities will come together and unite. That’s what’s going to come out of this,” Edmonton’s Abdulkadir said.
An estimated 260,000 people of Somali descent were living in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The largest population is in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, home to about 84,000 Somali residents, most of whom are American citizens.
In Minnesota, community advocate and journalist Awil Shire Wariye says women and girls wearing the hijab have reported being chased down on the streets. He says both individuals and groups are targeting Somali community members.
“This situation has reached a point where people feel insecure and live in fear, which does not reflect the values of society and human rights that the United States” prides itself on, he told CBC News.
Other Somali leaders said Wednesday they had received anecdotal reports about community members being detained by federal agents, according to The Associated Press, but had no details. Federal immigration officials did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for comment.
‘A base to dehumanize a community’
Zaynab Mohamed, 28, a Minnesota state senator and the first Muslim woman elected to the state senate, says Trump is looking to divide the country.
“He’s spewing things that are absolutely false and using them as a base to dehumanize a community that’s built Minnesota’s economy here,” she said.
People of Somali descent have become fixtures in the Twin Cities, opening businesses and revitalizing neighbourhoods of empty storefronts.
They are also increasingly politically prominent, serving in the state Legislature and on the Minneapolis and St. Paul city councils.
Democrat Ilhan Omar, who serves in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a regular target of Trump, who on Tuesday singled her out as “garbage.”
Mohamed, who moved from Somalia at the age of nine and is now a U.S. citizen, says recent Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have targeted Somali neighbours indiscriminately, including citizens. She says Somali men who are U.S. citizens and have U.S. IDs and passports are still being picked up and questioned.
“They’re targeting if you look like Somali,” Mohamed said.
She says she worries this could set a dangerous precedent for other minority groups and the potential for violence against minorities.
“This is what this is creating. This is creating a level of life safety.”
Abdi Samatar, a Somali American and professor at the University of Minnesota, says it is ‘dishonorable, unpresidential and quite unfortunate’ to hear the language that U.S. President Donald Trump has used against his community coming from the Oval Office. He says some students of East African origin have been afraid to come to class, but the larger community has been supportive.
Scared but united
Over the past few years the Somali community has also struggled with being stereotyped after dozens of people were arrested in connection with schemes to defraud social service agencies of what some officials say could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Some of those arrested were Somali U.S. citizens.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in an interview late last month with the New York Times, said the programs were “set up to move the money to people” during the pandemic. As a result, he has said, his administration may have erred on the side of generosity.
Walz said on Thursday an audit due for completion by late January should give a better picture of how much money had been stolen. He also said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud.
Last week, Trump called Minnesota “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” after a report by a conservative activist said fraud money flowed to al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda that controls parts of Somalia. But there has been little, if any, evidence, showing such a link, and federal prosecutors have not charged any defendants with supporting terrorists.
On Thursday, Walz said that Trump had slandered all Minnesotans and that his expressions of contempt for the state’s Somali community — the largest in the U.S. — were “unprecedented for a United States president. We’ve got little children going to school today who their president called them garbage.”
For many Somali Americans, Trump’s comments carry emotional weight.
Abdirahman Warsame, 27, the executive director of Generation Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing addiction and mental health in the East African community, and a lifelong Minneapolis resident, says he felt “shocked but not surprised” by the president’s words.
“He called us garbage and said we don’t belong here,” he said.
Warsame says he also worries ICE operations could devastate families.
“The president has signed the death warrant for several Somali citizens and immigrants,” he said. “This is going to hurt a lot of people.”
Still, Warsame says fear is not stopping the community from standing together.
“The silver lining of this is that this only makes us stronger,” he said.
“We are scared,” Warsame said. “But we’re united.”
