MN State Senator Reacts to Trump Calling Somali Immigrants “Garbage”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Now, Minnesota’s Somali community is the latest focus of Donald Trump’s wrath and war on immigrants. At a rally last night, the president let loose, openly using an epithet he had previously denied using in 2018.

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DONALD TRUMP: Why is it we only take people from — countries, right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few, let us have a few. From Denmark, do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people, do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they’re good at is going after ships.

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AMANPOUR: So, this has been described by some as a xenophobic tirade, and it comes amid a crackdown by ICE agents in Minnesota this week, which is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. Democratic State Senator Zaynab Mohamed herself immigrated to the U.S. as a child, and she’s joining Hari Sreenivasan.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Christiane, thanks. State Senator Zaynab Mohamed, thanks so much for joining us. You are a state senator. You’re representing all Minnesotans, but you’re also representing from a state that has about 80,000 Somalis. And recently President Trump during a news conference said, quote, “I don’t want them in our country…We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.” As not just a state senator and a representative, but as a Somali immigrant, what was your reaction to this when you heard this?

 

ZAYNAB MOHAMED: I was sad, incredibly sad, but I wasn’t shocked coming from what’s been happening in the last 11 years and seeing the president target our community over the course of his administration. I wasn’t shocked. I was really deeply disturbed by it and sad for my community for them to deal with the most powerful person in the world to call them garbage.

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, there’s also, at the same time, been a program conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement called Metro Surge. The White House Border Czar Tom Homan recently. He said, “we also know that there’s a large illegal Somali community here, and that there’s a large illegal alien community there. We’re going to arrest every illegal alien that we find there.” Can you just help us put in perspective what the percentage, numbers of undocumented Somalis are in Minnesota?

 

MOHAMED: Yeah, it’s not many. So majority of Somalis in Minnesota have, are United States citizens or they’re naturalized citizens. They’re born here. They’re either naturalized citizens, often first, second or even third generation Americans. We don’t have many folks who are undocumented. We have about 700 people across the country who are on temporary status, temporary protected status – TPS – which is they are legal residents, but we don’t have, we don’t have many numbers in terms of undocumented communities, folks in Minnesota. 

 

SREENIVASAN: So even in the entire population of Somalis in the country, if there are only about 700, and let’s say there’s about 400 of those TPS recipients in Minnesota, the president said recently on his social media platform that he was, “terminating, effective immediately, the temporary protected status of TPS program for Somalis in Minnesota.” I mean, do you, do you think that the administration is gonna be successful in this?

 

MOHAMED: I think they will try, but what’s clear is they are not gonna be successful because what they think is there are large numbers of Somalis who are undocumented, or majority of our community is on TPS, which is not the case. And that’s what they’re seeing here on the ground, is that these folks are citizens. They’re born here, they’re naturalized. You know, let’s say all of them lived in Minnesota – 700 out of 80,000 is not that many people. And these are folks who are fleeing war and famine, some of the worst conditions to come to America for safety. And we’ve granted them that. And he’s taken that away. And I think it speaks to his leadership and the fact that it’s been detrimental to, to the American citizens.

 

SREENIVASAN: Can you tell us about the scale of the operation that you and members of your community have witnessed here?

 

MOHAMED: ICE agents came here in the hundreds last Monday. It’s been exactly a week. What we know is that so far they’ve only detained 19 people, out of that only five are Somalis. But they are everywhere in our communities. And they’re not just targeting undocumented communities. That’s what’s really important to note here, is that they’re targeting United States citizens. They have detained people who were born here. And so what they’re doing is they’re going up to people, as long as you look like me or you look like an immigrant, they’re questioning you, they’re stopping you. And so we’re teaching people to carry their passport IDs. And I think that’s something important to know because what they wanted was to see undoc– large numbers of undocumented Somalis in Minnesota. Turns out there isn’t. And so now they’re just harassing and being aggressive towards the community.

 

SREENIVASAN: There, there was a, a local news report, I think it’s on Fox 9 of a Somalia woman who is a US citizen who was arrested by ICE agents while running an errand. Can you tell us a little bit more about her case?

 

MOHAMED: Yeah, so what we know is she was running errands. She’s actually born in Edina, Minnesota, raised here, has been here her entire life. She was running errands on a regular day, two cars with ice agents pulled up, zip tied her. They detained her for 24 hours. And in that process – she told her story to the news that she was sexually assaulted, her family speaking . And so what they’re doing is not operating under the law. They’re not here to enforce immigration laws. They’re here to be disrespectful to the community, to antagonize them and, and to, to create fear. And they’re certainly doing that.

 

SREENIVASAN: We should note that in this case DHS told Fox 9 in Minneapolis that it could not comment on the incident without further information. So when you see stories like this on the news or from members of your community, what does that do to the overall kind of, I guess, atmosphere of how the community feels?

 

MOHAMED: Yeah, I mean, just across the state, it doesn’t feel normal because in a normal government, local mayors and law enforcement would know what ICE is doing, what they’re – why they’re there, who they’re targeting, for what reason they’re arresting people. That is not happening. They’re coming here in a hostile – invading, to try to invade the state of Minnesota. And I think it is really scary. What it is creating for us as like Minnesotans, is it is making it clear that these folks are not here to enforce our immigration laws, that these folks are here to scare us, to create us versus them mentality. And so people are uniting and they’re protecting their neighbors who are citizens who just happen to be immigrants or are from immigration background.

 

SREENIVASAN: What is your advice when Somali members of your community call you?

 

MOHAMED: Well, I tell them, make sure you carry your passport ID and your passport card, because they are not targeting just people, individuals who are undocumented. They are targeting all of us. I carry my passport ID. I tell my mother to do so. And I, the calls I get that I’m most afraid for are the mothers who don’t speak English well or don’t speak it at all, who still have to go to work. Those are the people that worry me the most in terms of interacting with the folks who are trying to invade our state.

 

SREENIVASAN: Yeah. This right now has been focused in on the Twin Cities, but Somalis have similarly, just like they left for the down, from the downtown to the suburbs, they’ve also left to ex-urban and rural areas to work on farms and be parts of small towns. Are you hearing anything from there?

 

MOHAMED: Thank you for pointing that out. We’re not just in the Twin Cities. We’re not just in the suburbs, we’re also in small towns. People in greater Minnesota, whether in Wilmer or Moorhead or Central Minnesota, are also vigilant. They are well aware of what’s happening in the Twin Cities. They, some people in Central Minnesota and St. Cloud, Minnesota, which is a small town in central Minnesota, have seen ice agents show up. And so it’s not just a target in the Twin Cities or in the metro. They are targeting people across, across the state of Minnesota. But our people have been here for, at this point, first, second or third generations. They know their neighbors. They’re not just they’re not just people who are entrepreneurs, they are farmers and doctors and lawyers. And so I, their neighbors know that and, and they’re protecting them and they’re stepping up. And I think for Minnesotans, it’s showing us what it means to be a good neighbor. And so I think what the president has done, he’s, he’s created this community to be so much better than what we even, what we even thought it would be.

 

SREENIVASAN: So what is the, been the response of leadership throughout the state? I know in the city, the mayor Jacob Frey had signed a recent executive order that barred ice from using any city owned spaces like parking lots for staging areas. What about the rest of the city and the state?

 

MOHAMED: Well, people are stepping up. Our governor has stepped up and, and has made it very clear that, that they are here to invade our state, that they are being hostile towards citizens. Most of our jurisdictions are not complying because they are not even telling them, they’re not even interested in complying with them. And, I mentioned this earlier, in a normal government, when ICE agents are in town, they talk to local law enforcement and the mayors, and they let them know who they’re arresting and why. And that is not happening. They’re showing up in the middle of a Monday with just a press announcement without any heads up to the local government. And so it’s been, for our leaders, they are stepping up. They’re also helping people understand what their rights are. A number of organizations across the state are also doing trainings for people so that they know what to do if ICE agents do interact with them.

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, there was a long running civil war in Somalia that led to the immigration and fleeing of so many people from that country to all over the world, including the United States. What would Somalis be returning to if they were deported or if they were, if they had this temporary protection status of the 700 or so in the country revoked?

 

MOHAMED: Yeah. I mean, the country is still going through an unrest and civil war. There is famine also happening. We know that people are still living in refugee camps. And so for people who live here like myself, who’ve been here since I was eight years old, to go back to a home I haven’t known since I was a child just seems antithetical to the beliefs of Americans. These people are Americans. They’ve been here for a number of generations. They’re not going anywhere. And so that’s sort of what we’ve been telling people because we’re not gonna send Americans to countries that they’ve never been to.

 

SREENIVASAN: Your family story is somewhat emblematic of Somali, so many different Somalis who have immigrated here. Why did they come and what’s your family’s contribution been like over the generations?

 

MOHAMED: Yeah. My family is the epitome of the American dream and why so many people in my community immigrate here. We came here when I was eight years old. My family was obviously wanting to leave the war. And Americans have taken us in, Minnesotans have taken us in and in return, every single one of my siblings has graduated college, is contributing in their own way. We’ve got nurses and people who work in different industries. You have people like me who ran for office when I was 24 years old, became the youngest member and one of the first three black women. Because it’s important to me, not just as a Somali woman, but just simply as an American that I give back to the people who’ve had my back, who’ve given me home. And this is my home.

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, I wondered, in some of the remarks that the president has made, he’s also targeted Ilhan Omar, who you know very well is a representative in Congress, and she’s been the target of his attacks. Are you seeing an increase in any sorts of threats or political violence against you?

 

MOHAMED: Absolutely. Any time the president spews what he did as he did last week and calls the entire community garbage and paints a brush over us, attacks against our leaders like myself increase. We’ve been getting death threats. People are afraid to go to their stores or to go, or even if they live in parts where there aren’t a lot of people who look like us. They’re being more vigilant. They don’t know what it incites. We also lived through June 14th in Minnesota where my leader, speaker Hortman, Minnesota House Minnesota leader of the house, Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated. And my colleague John Hoffman and his wife had an attempted assassination on them. And I was on that list. And so, I am afraid for my community. I’m afraid for myself. But we have no choice but to step up and speak up against the rhetoric and say, we deserve to live in a country that is safe, where our leaders don’t incite violence against us, because that’s exactly what’s happening. And you know, I would’ve hoped that June 14th was a lesson to our leaders, both sides of the aisle. But it seems not to be.

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, one of the things that the President has keyed in on, and several conservatives in the state as well have keyed in on, is a series of fraud cases that have been discovered and investigated and prosecuted over the last few years, where there have been different state programs that have been taken advantage of. And a number of Somalis have been indicted and charged with these crimes. And I guess, you know, your reaction to the president’s comments on the case, I mean, he says, “Somalians ripped off that state –” Minnesota – “for billions of dollars…Every year, billions of dollars and they contribute nothing.” 

 

MOHAMED: Well, first of all, the contributions of the community speak for themselves. Right? In terms of the fraud, fraud hurts everyone. Fraud hurts Somali taxpayers and Somali people who are supposed to be getting these, receiving these services. What is, what is important is we don’t do this to other communities. This year there was a group of people who were linked to a Russian gang who stole $10 billion, who schemed over $10 billion in fraud. We don’t say is that indicative of the entire Russian community, because it’s not. And these are individuals who are not representative of our entire community. They are 78 people. They are criminals. And that is how we should be speaking of them. We should not be saying that this is an indicative of the entire community. That is where the rhetoric starts and where it creates political violence for people who look like myself.

 

SREENIVASAN: So are these the issues kind of being colluded in the minds of Minnesotans, or are they keeping them apart? Okay, there’s one that we can be against fraud and we can still support Somali communities. Or is this, as you say, kind of painting the brush across the entire community?

 

MOHAMED: I mean, right wing podcasters and social media and Republicans at the federal level, and certainly Minnesota Republicans have been in lockstep that have been blaming the entire community for the actions of few. What I will tell you is, these folks are people, individuals in our community have spoken up against. Leaders like myself have said, those people are criminals. They don’t represent a single identity. And so I’m doing my part in getting the correct message across, which is, Somali people contribute to this community overwhelmingly. They’re in every industry. They’re taxpayers, they’re also hurt by this, by these criminals. These folks are criminals, and that’s how we’re labeling them.

 

SREENIVASAN: I also, I wonder how much of this do you think is connected to what’s happening just I guess, in Minnesota politics. You’re entering a reelection year, you’re a Democratically controlled state. Tim Walz is, the president is not a fan of him, and vice versa. There’s a quote that I wanna pull out. Kayseh Magan, who used to work at the Minnesota AG’s office as a fraud investigator, she’s quoted in the New York Times as saying, “there’s a perception that forcefully tackling this issue, fraud, might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc.” Is how much of that is playing into why this is suddenly on the president’s radar and why he puts it on the country’s?

 

MOHAMED: That could be a part of it. I think he wants to deenfranchise the community as much as possible. So if he can create, if he can fabricate stories to create us versus them and make the community feel alone and feel like no leaders have their backs, that plays to exactly what he wants, right? He wants to divide and conquer. What we’re seeing here in Minnesota is our leaders, particularly our Democratic leaders, are stepping up. We are also seeing some Republican leaders step up. Earlier when he said that, I sent a letter to all the leaders in the Minnesota House instead asking them to condemn. Our – Lisa Demuth, who’s the speaker of the House, who’s also running for governor, currently seeking the endorsement of Donald Trump, has not condemned it. Her colleague in the Minnesota Senate, who’s a colleague of mine, Jim Abeler who’s a Republican, did condemn and sent a letter to the President and said, you should meet Somali people. What you’re saying about them is heinous. And it is wrong, and it’s vile and it’s not representative of the Somali citizens and my friends that I have. That is a Republican leader in this moment who’s stepping up.

But no majority of them are in lockstep with Washington, are afraid of Donald Trump calling them out, or, you know, making a post on Truth Social and saying, don’t support Lisa Demuth. And so what we’re seeing is leaders not do their part, but we are seeing few of them do. And I think that’s something important to note, yes, elections are next year. It is certainly playing a role. Republicans want to take control of Minnesota. But I think what Donald Trump said is not gonna allow that to happen.

 

SREENIVASAN: Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed, thanks so much for your time. 

 

MOHAMED: Thank you.