Minnesota on ICE: With the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis has turn out to be the frontline of POTUS Trump’s incitement and the the explanation why return many years and throughout the globe to Somalia.
What Drew Trump’s Consideration to Minnesota?
Most lately, two components have doubtless drawn the eye of Trump and White Home Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller: a media frenzy over fraud scandals and the presence of the most important Somali group exterior of Africa.
The primary has supplied Trump and the broader proper with a wealthy alternative to assault social spending and entitlement packages.
The second is well timed due to the persevering with significance of Somalia, most particularly the breakaway Somaliland area, in geo-politics.
The Altering Demographics of Minnesota
Let’s placed on our Stephen Miller glasses and attempt to think about how Minnesota’s demographic traits are seen by our racists-in-charge.
This chart and paragraphs from Wikipedia’s entry on The Demographics of Minnesota is liable to make any blood-and-soil ethic supremacist sort’s blood boil:
African Individuals are 7.0% of the inhabitants, a determine that has steadily elevated over the previous three many years. This progress is partly attributed to the inflow of immigrants from East Africa, notably Somalia and Ethiopia, who reside primarily in cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul.
…
Important shifts in racial demographics have been evident by the flip of the twenty first century. By 2010, the White inhabitants was 85.3% and the Black inhabitants elevated to five.2%. The Asian inhabitants rose to 4%, and people figuring out as two or extra races rose to 2.4%. This development was mirrored within the 2020 census as properly.
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) January 12, 2026
But it surely took greater than only a rising African immigrant inhabitants to make Minnesota and its Somali diaspora inhabitants a gorgeous goal for POTUS Trump and put Minnesota on ICE.
Colton Baldus precisely summed up the targets of the MAGA marketing campaign towards Minnesota as being “to push the deportation agenda in a Democratic-governed state, defund packages that working individuals depend on, and flip Minnesota to the Republican column within the 2026 midterm elections.”
Trump Goals His Racist Rhetoric At Somali-Individuals
In December Trump tipped his hand that Somali-Individuals have been a precedence goal with an “outburst (that) was surprising in its unapologetic bigotry” per The New York Occasions in early December. Right here’s extra from the NYT:
“Once they come from hell and so they complain and do nothing however bitch, we don’t need them in our nation. Allow them to return to the place they got here from and repair it,” Mr. Trump added as Vice President JD Vance banged the desk in encouragement.
He mentioned Somalia “stinks and we don’t need them in our nation.” He described Consultant Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who got here to the US from Somalia as a refugee and have become a citizen 25 years in the past, as “rubbish.”
“We may go someway, and we’re going to go the flawed approach if we preserve taking in rubbish into our nation,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “She’s rubbish. Her mates are rubbish. These aren’t individuals who work. These aren’t individuals who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place nice.’”
That’s the fascist worth proposition in a couple of paragraphs: over-simplify historical past, identify a scapegoat, and promise brutal and swift motion. Finish end result: Minnesota on ICE.
Proper-Wing Echo Chamber Booming About Somali Minnesota
The proximate trigger of the present Minnesota on ICE scenario is right-wing influencer Nick Shirley and his YouTube video “I Investigated Minnesota’s Billion Greenback Fraud Scandal.”
As The Intercept chronicled:
The video, which has been considered greater than 2.2 million instances on YouTube and tens of millions extra on different platforms, sparked a renewed crackdown in Minneapolis, with the Division of Homeland Safety saying on Monday it might go to 30 websites suspected of fraud throughout the town. A DHS official informed CBS Information Minnesota its brokers would concentrate on a “little of the whole lot,” when requested whether or not immigration enforcement could be part of the crackdown. Threatening arrests, the company posted a video to X by which brokers enter a smoke store and query an worker a couple of close by day care middle.
This isn’t the primary time the conservative YouTuber has gotten the eye of the Trump administration. Shirley participated in President Donald Trump’s “Roundtable on Antifa” in October after an altercation at an anti-ICE protest. At age 23, his movies aren’t merely influencing his audiences — they’re additionally influencing authorities motion.
…
State regulators mentioned Monday that inspectors had visited the day cares talked about within the video prior to now six months, in response to the Minnesota Star Tribune, that there was no proof of fraud on the websites throughout these unannounced visits, and a number of the facilities have already been closed or suspended. In line with Minnesota Public Radio, state Republican lawmakers had steered Shirley towards the day care facilities he visited within the video.
…
Regardless of Shirley’s insistence that race and faith don’t have anything to do along with his investigation, the YouTuber has a protracted monitor report of utilizing his man-on-the-street movies to focus on immigrants within the U.S., platforming people who unfold xenophobic and Islamophobic beliefs and conspiracy theories. Whereas Shirley’s movies embody interviews with these protesting towards such hate, he usually presents immigration and Islam as a rising risk taking on the nation. Mixed with sensationalized headlines — “Exposing Harmful Unlawful Migrant Scammers” or “The UK’s Insane Migrant Invasion” — the top result’s usually a portrait of immigrants as lawbreakers, a societal risk, and a pressure on authorities sources.
No matter media efforts to debunk Shirley’s claims, January 2, greater than 2000 DHA brokers have been aiming to place Minnesota on ICE.
Only a few days later, the marketing campaign landed an even bigger catch: the political profession of Governor Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
Tim Walz Sunk by Scandal
On January 5, Walz launched an announcement saying that he was ending his marketing campaign for a 3rd time period as Minnesota governor.
Key quotes:
In September, I introduced that I’d run for a historic third time period as Minnesota’s Governor. And I’ve each confidence that, if I gave it my all, I’d reach that effort.
However as I mirrored on this second with my household and my workforce over the vacations, I got here to the conclusion that I can’t give a political marketing campaign my all. Each minute I spend defending my very own political pursuits could be a minute I can’t spend defending the individuals of Minnesota towards the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our variations.
So I’ve determined to step out of the race and let others fear concerning the election whereas I concentrate on the work.
Earlier than he obtained to the cash quote he tried to land a couple of counter-punches on Trump and tried to defend his report in workplace:
For the final a number of years, an organized group of criminals have sought to make the most of our state’s generosity. And at the same time as we make progress within the battle towards the fraudsters, we now see an organized group of political actors looking for to make the most of the disaster.
I received’t mince phrases right here. Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in St. Paul, and on-line – need to make our state a colder, meaner place. They need to poison our individuals towards one another by attacking our neighbors. And, finally, they need to take away a lot of what makes Minnesota the most effective place in America to boost a household. They’ve already begun by taking our tax {dollars} that have been meant to assist households afford little one care. They usually don’t have any intention of stopping there.
Make no mistake: We ought to be involved about fraud in our state authorities. We can not successfully ship packages and providers if we will’t earn the general public’s belief. That’s why, over the previous few years, we’ve made systemic adjustments to the best way we do enterprise.
We’ve gone to the legislature repeatedly to get extra instruments to fight fraud. We’ve fired individuals who weren’t doing their jobs. We’ve seen individuals go to jail for stealing from our state. We’ve reduce off complete streams of funding, in partnership with the federal authorities, the place we noticed widespread prison exercise. We’ve put new locks on the doorways of our remaining packages, and we’ve employed a brand new head of program integrity to verify these locks can’t be damaged.
It’s a sudden finish to a political profession that for a couple of weeks in 2024 appeared headed for The US Naval Observatory and presumably the White Home itself.
However Trump wasn’t happy with Walz’ head on the White Home trophy wall, there’s social spending to slash.
Trump Regime Cuts Funds
By the tenth, POTUS Trump’s gang within the White Home had seized the day to ship what Elon Musk’s DOGE couldn’t: huge cuts to social providers.
Per The Guardian:
The Trump administration introduced it’s suspending $129m in federal profit funds to Minnesota amid allegations of widespread fraud within the state.
The secretary of the US Division of Agriculture (USDA), Brooke Rollins, shared a letter on Friday on social media that was addressed to Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, notifying them of the administration’s resolution and citing investigations into alleged fraud carried out by native non-profits and companies.
“Regardless of a staggering, wide-reaching fraud scandal, your administrations refuse to offer primary data or take widespread sense measures to cease fraud. The Trump administration refuses to permit such fraud to proceed,” Rollins wrote.
Rollins requested Walz and Frey to offer the USDA with justification for all federal spending from 20 January 2025 to the current inside 30 days. She can also be requiring that every one federal funds to the state transferring ahead require the identical justification.
The cuts in Minnesota have been a part of a Trump admin try and freeze $10 billion in social providers to 5 states. A choose has briefly put that on maintain, however time will inform who prevails.
I’ll come again to the fraud scandal that helped put Minnesota on ICE however first, there’s one other little bit of historic context to offer.
How did Minnesota turn out to be a target-rich setting for xenophobes within the Trump regime?
Why Are There So Many Somalis in Minnesota?
Let’s take a look at how the Somalis obtained to Minnesota. This Amazon evaluation of Ahmed I. Yusuf ‘s e-book “Somalis in Minnesota” tells the story concisely and debunks Trump’s claims that the individuals of Somalia have been solely chargeable for their very own struggling:
Within the Nineteen Eighties the younger nation of Somalia discovered itself caught between two superpowers and wracked by violence and distress. A couple of years earlier, Somali Basic Siad Barre, backed by the Soviet Union, had invaded and claimed lands in neighboring Ethiopia.
The Soviet Union then surprisingly switched alliances and supported Ethiopia. Barre referred to as on the US and Britain for assist, however in the long run he needed to pull out of Ethiopia. Subsequent coup makes an attempt and executions destabilized and divided Somalia into battle zones. Famine adopted.
Worldwide meals help couldn’t penetrate the area’s carnage and corruption and the U.N. sanctioned humanitarian navy intervention. An try and seize warlord Farrah Aidid, who had attacked Pakistani troops, led to the notorious “Black Hawk Down” incident.
American troops have been killed and President Clinton ordered the U.S. to go away. All different nations adopted go well with, leaving a smoldering Somalia behind. With few choices remaining, individuals fled.
A selected group of refugees went to Kenya and, following extra indescribable hardship, some finally discovered their method to San Diego. Missing alternatives in California, a 1992 assist needed advert for a meals processing plant impressed some to maneuver to the significantly extra frigid local weather of Marshall, Minnesota.
They discovered work virtually instantly, encouraging others northward. An increasing number of adopted. They established communities in Minnesota’s welcoming and comparatively tolerant ambiance. Much more adopted.
Quickly, some relocated to Minneapolis and continued constructing Somali communities. This continued till Minnesota, notably the town of Minneapolis, may declare the most important inhabitants of Somalis in the US.
And that inhabitants of Somalis busied themselves by constructing financial and political energy.
The Somali Diaspora Grew and Thrived in Minnesota
Somali diaspora chronicler Ahmed I. Yusef spoke to The Sahan Journal and described what his group did in Minnesota after arriving:
The primary Somalis to be straight resettled from refugee camps in Africa to Minnesota have been largely individuals from Mogadishu who started arriving in 1996. The big inflow of Southeast Asian refugees within the Seventies and ’80s paved the best way for Somali resettlement in Minnesota, Yusuf mentioned. Teams like Lutheran Social Providers and Catholic Charities had expertise serving to refugees set up themselves within the North Star State.
The work finished by African Individuals within the battle for civil rights additionally helped ease the arrival for Somalis in Minnesota, Yusuf mentioned. Progressive civil rights politicians from Minnesota like Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale helped create a welcoming local weather.
…
The late ’90s and early 2000s noticed a whole lot of Somali entrepreneurs open companies in Minnesota, and households set up themselves in areas of Minneapolis that had fallen into disrepair.“All the panorama of south Minneapolis, notably the world adjoining to downtown, has fully modified and been revitalized,” Yusuf mentioned.
Quickly, Somalis started to take seats in native authorities. In 2010, Hussein Samatar was elected to the Minneapolis college board, making him the primary elected Somali official within the state. Three years later, Abdi Warsame turned the primary Somali elected to the Minneapolis Metropolis Council.
In 2016, Ilhan Omar turned the primary Somali elected to the Minnesota Home of Representatives, and the primary Somali girl to win election in Minnesota. Two years later, she received a seat in Congress.
Since then, a number of Somali Individuals have been elected to the Minnesota Home of Representatives. In 2020, Omar Fateh turned the primary Somali American elected to the Minnesota Senate; Zaynab Mohamed turned the primary Somali girl elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2022.
Astute readers will see why Trump, Vance, Miller and the MAGA motion see the Somali group in Minnesota as not solely a goal, but in addition a risk.
However like every group of current immigrants, some Somalis have been tempted to take brief cuts on the street to the American Dream.
The Fraud Is Actual
Whereas it’s by no means a good suggestion to take GOP noise machine claims at face worth, there was an enormous fraud uncovered in Minnesota below Walz’ watch that helps clarify Minnesota on ICE.
Axios has a good timeline of the entire thing that helps clarify how “stress from the Trump administration turned a state scandal that has periodically dominated Minnesota headlines for not less than six years into nationwide information.”
Some key quotes:
For the final a number of years, most consideration in Minnesota has centered on what prosecutors referred to as the largest-ever case of pandemic-aid fraud: a sprawling scheme to bilk a federally funded college meals program.
With program guidelines loosened to make sure kids didn’t starve throughout COVID, prosecutors say fraudsters billed for not less than $250 million-worth of meals that they didn’t serve. To this point, greater than 70 defendants have pleaded responsible or been convicted.
Walz administration officers have lengthy maintained they tried to intervene to cease probably fraudulent meal funds, however court docket challenges stymied their efforts.
However Minnesota’s impartial Legislative Auditor has disputed their argument, concluding in a 2024 report that the state’s Division of Schooling “didn’t act on warning indicators” — and will’ve legally intervened to make sure cash stopped flowing.
Minnesota Public Radio has a extra detailed and Minnesota-centric timeline of the scandal that helps clarify the present Minnesota on ICE scenario.
This New York Occasions piece from November has extra on the scandal:
During the last 5 years, legislation enforcement officers say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of people made small fortunes by establishing corporations that billed state companies for tens of millions of {dollars}’ value of social providers that have been by no means supplied.
Federal prosecutors say that 59 individuals have been convicted in these schemes up to now, and that greater than $1 billion in taxpayers’ cash has been stolen in three plots they’re investigating. That’s greater than Minnesota spends yearly to run its Division of Corrections. Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even within the context of rampant theft through the pandemic, when Individuals stole tens of billions by unemployment advantages, enterprise loans and different types of help, in response to federal auditors.
…
The primary public signal of a significant downside within the state’s social providers system got here in 2022, when federal prosecutors started charging defendants in connection to a program geared toward feeding hungry kids. Merrick B. Garland, lawyer basic through the Biden administration, referred to as it the nation’s largest pandemic reduction fraud scheme.The prosecutors centered on a Minneapolis nonprofit group referred to as Feeding Our Future, which turned a companion to dozens of native companies that enrolled as feeding websites.
Actual However Overstated?
So the scandal is actual, however The Heart for Media and Democracy has made a robust case that the MSM has finished its ordinary job of elevating right-wing agit-prop to the middle of the nationwide dialogue.
Key quotes:
CBS—below its new house owners, the Ellison household—together with the Murdoch trinity of Fox Information, the New York Publish and Wall Avenue Journal, have coated the story aggressively, at instances selecting up unconfirmed accounts from conservative influencers which have spun into wild costs about vote-buying and cover-ups.
The New York Occasions supplied front-page protection to a Sunday information story echoing key arguments made in Trump administration speaking factors: {that a} Nordic-style welfare state in Minnesota, mixed with prison tendencies inherent to the state’s Somali inhabitants, created an setting ripe for fraud. The Occasions additionally focuses on the defendants’ claims that they have been being persecuted for racial causes.
…Extra indictments have been filed this 12 months, extending the alleged fraud scheme to a housing stabilization program and a well being care program. CBS, Fox, the Wall Avenue Journal, and the New York Publish have all repeated DOJ claims that the frauds now exceed $1 billion. Joseph Thompson, the federal prosecutor main the case, didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark from CMD asking for clarification on DOJ’s financial estimates.
The one citations supporting the $1-billion declare in these tales come from a division that has been weaponized towards its political enemies and is vulnerable to “unprecedented errors” that critically undermine its credibility.
Primarily based on what the DOJ has really filed in court docket, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune calculated the price of the alleged fraud schemes to be $217.7 million over a number of years, whereas noting that the quantity was more likely to develop.
I’ll conclude the story of Minnesota on ICE on Wednesday with a take a look at the intra-Democratic get together politics that helped land Minneapolis the place it’s at present.
It should embody a retelling of the 2025 mayoral main that noticed Mayor Jacob Frey maintain off a spirited problem from State Senator Omar Fateh. I ought to in all probability have coated it final summer season together with my items on the New York Metropolis mayor’s race, California governor’s race and Maine US senate main, however alas there wasn’t world sufficient nor time.
We’ll attempt to compensate for that, plus Frey’s function within the 2020 BLM protests and Minnesotans’ makes an attempt to withstand Minnesota on ICE, the connection to Somaliland (and Israel and the UAE) subsequent time.
