President Donald Trump has declared he does not want Somali immigrants in the United States, telling reporters they should “go back to where they came from” and disparaging their homeland as he confirmed plans for a major ICE enforcement operation targeting Minnesota’s large Somali community.
“I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump stated bluntly during a televised cabinet meeting, dismissing concerns about political correctness. “We would go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” he added, before specifically attacking Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress.
The inflammatory comments coincide with reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to launch an operation this week targeting hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. The Paul area is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. Local officials have condemned the plan, warning it could unlawfully sweep up American citizens and violate due process.
Why It Matters
This is racial scapegoating disguised as immigration policy. Trump isn’t only announcing enforcement actions; he’s also personally branding an entire nationality as unwanted “garbage” to create a pretext for aggressive raids that will inevitably traumatize a largely law-abiding community.
The timing—following the tragic shooting by an Afghan national—reveals the administration’s cynical playbook: use one immigrant’s crime to justify crackdowns against entirely different immigrant groups. By explicitly naming Somalis and Minnesota, Trump isn’t just setting policy; he’s painting a target on the backs of tens of thousands of people, including American citizens who “look” like the group he’s vilifying.
When the President of the United States says he doesn’t want a specific nationality in the country, and federal agents simultaneously prepare raids against that community, we’ve crossed from policy debate into state-sanctioned discrimination. Minnesota’s leaders are right to call this what it is: a political PR stunt that will separate families, terrorize citizens, and do nothing to make America safer.
