(NewsNation) — Somali nationals living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area will be the target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement strike teams in an upcoming immigration enforcement operation, Department of Homeland Security sources confirmed to NewsNation on Tuesday.
Sources said that ICE strike teams will be carrying out the operations in the Twin Cities, where other people could be swept up as “collateral” arrests. Minnesota is home to the country’s largest Somali community, with about 107,000 residents as of 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
The bureau reports that nationally, 73% of Somali immigrants are naturalized U.S. citizens.
Trump ended “Temporary Protected Status” for Somali nationals last week, “effective immediately.” The president has shifted more of his focus to 19 third-world countries, including Somalia, in the wake of the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members last week in Washington.
On Thanksgiving, Trump posted a lengthy statement to his Truth Social account, writing, “Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great state of Minnesota.” Trump wrote that Somali gangs are roving the streets “looking for prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses “hoping they will be left alone.”
In a statement to NewsNation regarding the ICE strike teams deployed to Minnesota, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “Every day, ICE enforces the laws of the nation across the country. What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally. We do not discuss future or potential operations.”
In his social media post last week, Trump used a slur to describe Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, accusing the Democrat of doing nothing “either through fear, incompetence or both.” Trump continued to go after Walz on Tuesday, telling reporters, “There’s something wrong with him.”
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country,” Trump told reporters regarding Somali nationals, adding that he did not want them in the United States.
Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, on Tuesday responded to the reports of the ICE Twin Cities deployment. Walz wrote on X that “we welcome support in investigating and prosecuting crime. But pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to the problem.”
Trump has also directed his anger at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minnesota in Congress. Omar has held U.S. citizenship for 25 years after arriving in the country from Somalia. However, Trump has accused her of entering the United States illegally and said she was “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Omar “supposedly came into our country by marrying her brother. Well, if that’s true, she shouldn’t be a congressman, and we should throw her the hell out of our country.”
On Tuesday, Trump characterized Omar as “garbage” to reporters.
In response to Trump’s social media post, Walz said in a weekend television report that Trump is “demonizing” Somali migrants living in Minnesota.
“Demonizing an entire community, folks who are in the professions, educators, artists, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, they bring the diversity and the energy to a place like Minnesota,” the governor said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer contributed reporting to this story.