President Donald Trump unleashed a series of harsh remarks against Somali immigrants Dec. 2, calling them “garbage” and accusing them of abusing U.S. welfare programs, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly prepares a deportation operation targeting Somali nationals in Minnesota.
Speaking at the close of a White House Cabinet meeting, Trump said Somali immigrants “contribute nothing,” “do nothing but complain,” and should “go back to where they came from.”
“We don’t want them in our country,” he said, adding at one point that Somalia “stinks.”
The President singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a Somali-born refugee who became a U.S. citizen 25 years ago. He called her and her allies “garbage” and accused Omar of hating the Constitution and of harboring animosity toward “everybody.”
“I think she’s an incompetent person,” he said. “She’s a real terrible person.”
Omar responded on X, writing, “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
Meanwhile, ICE is readying to launch an enforcement raid this week in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the Associated Press reported. A source familiar with the operation told the outlet it will focus on Somali nationals with final deportation orders.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, pushed back against the reported raid plans and described Trump’s rhetoric as a “PR stunt.”
The clash comes after Trump announced on Truth Social in November that he would terminate Somalia’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a federal designation that allows Somali nationals to live and work legally in the U.S. if returning home would be unsafe. Somalia has held TPS for decades due to ongoing instability.
Trump argued that under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota has become “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and claimed that “Somali gangs” are “terrorizing the people of that great State.”
In recent years, federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged dozens of individuals in fraud schemes that stole more than $1 billion from state programs for child food assistance and other COVID-19 relief funds. According to the White House, 78 of the 86 individuals charged so far are of Somali ancestry.
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