By While the community grapples with allegedly being caught stealing millions in federal funding and sending it back to terror groups, Federal immigration authorities have begun a sweeping enforcement campaign across the Twin Cities, concentrating on Somali nationals with final removal orders, a move that immediately escalated political tensions in a state home to the largest Somali community in the country.
According to a federal official familiar with the planning — and to internal documents reviewed by The New York Times — the Department of Homeland Security has dispatched roughly 100 ICE officers and additional personnel from around the country to Minnesota this week. The teams, described as specialized strike units, are conducting targeted arrests as part of a broader nationwide surge in deportation operations under President Donald Trump’s second term.
The rollout comes just days after the president delivered one of his most caustic denunciations of Somali immigrants to date. Speaking during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said of Somalis, “When they come from hell and complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country.” He continued, “Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.” Vice President JD Vance, seated nearby, was observed striking the table in apparent approval.
DHS officials have said little publicly. Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokeswoman, declined to discuss operational specifics but reiterated the administration’s broader legal rationale. “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.
Minnesota leaders reacted with alarm, casting the operation as politically choreographed and legally risky. Gov. Tim Walz criticized the deployment in a social-media post: “We welcome support in investigating and prosecuting crime. But pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to a problem.”
We welcome support in investigating and prosecuting crime. But pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to a problem. https://t.co/Y3vd0tLRmG
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) December 2, 2025
At City Hall, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey warned that the tactical focus on Somali residents raises profound due-process concerns. “Targeting Somali people means due process will be violated, it means that American citizens will be detained for no reason other than the fact that they look Somali,” he told reporters. He added that federal agents have provided no assurances that citizenship checks or civil-rights protections will be meaningfully observed in the field.
🚨JUST IN: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says as many as 100 federal agents are headed to the Twin Cities following reports of massive taxpayer fraud committed by Somali immigrants. pic.twitter.com/Y6vNhB0rhe
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 2, 2025
Local organizers said on Tuesday that at least two Somalis had been arrested in the morning hours and shared reports of agents stopping cars and removing occupants. Dieu Do of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee said community networks were already mobilized. “We have plans in place in case bigger operations come,” she told The Times. “Federal agents should be afraid to come here because we’re not afraid to protect each other.”
The Twin Cities operation tracks with high-visibility enforcement actions in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte, N.C., part of a strategy that officials acknowledge is designed not only to execute removal orders but also to create a climate that encourages voluntary departure among undocumented immigrants. The administration has simultaneously moved to end long-standing temporary protected status for many Somalis and has amplified rhetoric linking Somali communities to crime — including Mr. Trump’s recent claim that Somali gangs are “roving the streets looking for ‘prey’” in Minnesota.
Both Minneapolis and St. Paul maintain sanctuary-city policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
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