Trump says he doesn’t want Somalis in US as ICE plans operation

US President Donald Trump has said he doesn't want Somali immigrants to stay in the US, telling reporters they should “go back to where they came from” and that “their country is worthless for a reason.”

“I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you,” he said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Trump said the United States is “going down the wrong path if we continue to dump trash into our country.”

His disparaging comments came after it was reported that immigration authorities were planning a law enforcement operation in Minnesota's large Somali community.

In response, the Somali prime minister said he would not attach importance to Trump's comments and suggested that they be ignored.

Officials in Minnesota have condemned the immigration plan, saying it could unfairly target American citizens who may be from the East African country.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, known together as the Twin Cities, are home to one of the largest Somali communities in the world and the largest in the United States.

The reported plan and Trump's comments represent an escalation of the president's recent attacks on Minnesota's Somali community, whose decades-long protected status in the U.S. he recently vowed to end, and its Democratic politicians.

Trump also recently expanded his months-long crackdown on immigration following the shooting last week of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., believed to have been carried out by an Afghan who had crossed into the United States. Trump did not mention this incident when talking about the Somalis.

During his speech, which came at the end of an hours-long televised Cabinet meeting, Trump said: “I don't want them in our country. I'll be honest with you, okay.”

“Someone will say, 'Oh, that's not politically correct.' I don't care. I don’t want them in our country.”

He also said: “As for Somalia, which is barely a country, you know, they don't have, they don't have anything. They just run around killing each other. There's no structure there.”

He then moved on to criticize Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and the first Somali-American elected to Congress, with whom he has clashed repeatedly over the years.

“I always keep an eye on her,” Trump said, adding that Omar “hates everyone. And I think she's an incompetent person.”

“His obsession with me is creepy,” Omar responded in a social media post. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

The Trump administration has directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target undocumented Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities, a person familiar with the plan told BBC U.S. affiliate CBS News on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people are expected to become casualties when the operation begins this week, the official said. The New York Times was the first to report the operation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, declined to comment on the planned operations and denied that any people would be targeted because of their race.

“Every day, ICE enforces the laws of the land across the country,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

“What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally,” she said.

At a news conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the ICE operation “is a violation of due process.”

About 80,000 people of Somali descent live here, the vast majority are U.S. citizens, local leaders say.

Last month, Trump said he plans to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program for immigrants from countries in crisis, for Somali residents living in Minnesota. This order will affect several hundred immigrants.

TPS for Somalis has existed since 1991 as a result of the conflict in the country.

Earlier this week, Trump's Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested her department would crack down on visa fraud in Minnesota.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an investigation into allegations that state tax dollars may have been diverted to the Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, which is part of al-Qaeda. The investigation followed unverified media reports in the United States, which the militants denied.

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and many of the migrants who moved to the United States left in the 1990s during the country's decades-long civil war.

Asked by a reporter about Trump's comments, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said he had not heard them personally but had been informed of them. He noted that Trump not only spoke about Somalia, but also made similar remarks regarding other African countries, in particular Nigeria and South Africa.

The Prime Minister said his government preferred not to raise the issue.

“There are things you convey with Salaman,” he added, using a Quranic expression meaning to respond to an insult with peace rather than confrontation.

“Making it an issue and making a big deal out of it is more harmful than just moving on,” he said.

Meanwhile, local leaders in Minnesota have directly condemned the Trump administration's plan for an ICE operation.

Minnesota State Senator Zainab Mohamed said on X that “when ICE agents interact with Somalis here, they will see what we've been saying for years: Almost all of us are U.S. citizens.”

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 presidential election and who has been battling the president in recent days, said: “We welcome support for investigating and prosecuting crimes. But using PR and indiscriminately attacking immigrants is not a real solution to the problem.”

Trump's latest escalation of his crackdown on immigration comes after 20-year-old National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom was killed in a shooting last week in Washington, D.C., and 24-year-old Andrew Wolf was seriously wounded.

Officials said the suspect arrived in the U.S. in 2021 as part of a program for Afghans who worked with U.S. troops for 20 years in Afghanistan and who were considered at risk of reprisals after U.S. troops pulled out.

On Tuesday, Noem said she would recommend travel bans on several countries that she said are “inundating” the U.S. with criminal activity.

Previously, the United States suspended all decisions on asylum requests, and also announced a review of green cards that were issued to persons who migrated to the United States from a number of countries. Trump has also threatened to “permanently halt migration” from what he calls “Third World” countries.

Addiat from a reproduction of Ali Ali's report