How Minnesota became a hub for Somali immigrants in the U.S. : NPR

Minnesota boasts the largest population of Somalis in the United States, a community that has recently come under attack from President Trump.

On Tuesday, Trump named Somali immigrants “garbage” and said he wanted to send them “back to where they came from.” He continued on Wednesday, saying, “They've ruined our country and all they do is complain, complain, complain.”

The tirade came less than two weeks after Trump threatened deprive of temporary legal protection from Somali migrants living in Minnesota.

Trump and other conservatives have also recently taken on criminal investigations and news reports of fraud in the Minnesota social services system—some of which were allegedly committed by Somalis—to humiliate the entire community.

Now US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans goal Minnesota and its Somali population in the upcoming immigration enforcement operation, The Associated Press and other outlets reported the news this week..

About 80,000 people of Somali origin currently living in Minnesotaabout 78% of whom live in the Twin Cities, according to St. Paul-based group Wilder Research.

But it didn't start with the Twin Cities. Rather, some of the first Somali immigrants to arrive After entering the United States in the late 1990s, he came to the city of Marshall, about 150 miles west of Minneapolis, according to Minnesota writer Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, who wrote the book. Somalis in Minnesota.

There was a civil war going on in Somalia at the time, which caused hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing the country is located in the Horn of Africa, and some of those who came to the United States found work at the Marshall meat processing plant. As word of the job opportunities in Marshall spread, other Somali refugees came to the region and took jobs in the hospitality industry, as taxi drivers and the like, Yusuf said, forming a sizable Somali community in and around the Twin Cities.

“The people who were hired brought their families with them. And when they brought their families with them, their families, of course, brought their children with them,” he said.

Somali refugees who settled in Minneapolis and St. Paul were also attracted by the fact that Minnesota was known masterwhich means “hospitality” in Somali. Yusuf said the state's “liberal stance and social behavior” reflected immigrants' own values.

For some Somali refugees, the transition to life in Minnesota hasn't been entirely smooth. Some religious Somalis have faced barriers to practicing their Islamic faith, which can include praying several times a day and Muslim women wearing the hijab. according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

The society said the Somali population is also struggling to overcome its association with Islamic extremism after the community became a target of recruitment for ISIS more than ten years ago.

However, Yusuf said the Somali population in Minnesota continues to grow and is finding ways to give back. “Right now, no matter where you go, we are still serving the people, we are serving the community, we are serving the state,” he said.

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who fled Somalia as a child and came to the United States as a refugee, became the first Somali-American elected to Congress in 2018.

Trump said Wednesday that Omar “shouldn't be allowed to be a congressman, and I'm sure people are looking at that. And she should be kicked the hell out of our country.”

Lobster This was stated in a message on social networks on Tuesday. in response to Trump's earlier comments: “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

She was one of four congresswomen whom Trump said in a 2019 tweet must “go back and help rebuild the completely destroyed and crime-infested places from which they came.” At the rally, shortly after his tweet about Omar, Trump paused while some crowd members chanted: “Send her back.”

Yusuf said the Somali community is now “a little under siege” by the Trump administration, but noted that it is also has the support of the city leadership in the Twin Cities, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter.

“We are dealing with it,” Yusuf said, “but we are not fighting it alone.”