New ICE Operation Is Said to Target Somali Migrants in Twin Cities

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

Dec. 2, 2025 Updated 2:09 p.m. ET


The Trump administration is launching an intensive immigration enforcement operation primarily targeting hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, according to an official with knowledge of the operation and documents obtained by The New York Times.

The move comes as President Trump has fixated on Somalis living in the United States, using increasingly inflammatory language to attack them. He stepped up his rhetoric in the wake of last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, even though the man suspected in the attack is an Afghan national.

The directive for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., came immediately after Mr. Trump’s remarks. The effort, which is beginning this week, focuses largely on Somalis with final deportation orders who are living in the Twin Cities, though the official said that others who are still seeking legal status could be swept up as well. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing operation.

The plan calls for the deployment of so-called strike teams, which are made up of ICE officers, agents and other federal officials. Roughly 100 officers and agents from around the country have been brought in for the operation, the official said. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said in a statement that the agency does not discuss “future or potential operations.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/politics/ice-somali-migrants-minneapolis-st-paul.html

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[maxsolomon]

1. TBH I had no idea there were undocumented Somali migrants in the US

I thought they were all legit refugees since Somalia is a basket case fighting a decades-long Islamist insurgency.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. They ARE refugees

accepted here legally as such.

This is all RACIST targeting to distract from that Epstein file release deadline that is coming up.

[maxsolomon]

3. So, they're targeting Somalis that don't have permanent status yet,

and may have committed crimes of some sort?

That'd be my guess - since they're snatching people up at their green card hearings.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The vast majority of the roundups that Ice Barbie has done

have been of people who did NOT commit crimes, were following the rules and dealing with the massive backlogs for getting green cards, - even being snatched out of courtrooms trying to report in per the law.

The first BIG group of Somalis who came in and were settled in MN were brought in under POPPY BUSH in 1991 when the country's government collapsed.

President Bush orders U.S. troops to Somalia

Published: February 09, 2010
Last Updated: May 28, 2025

President George H.W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia, a war-torn East African nation where rival warlords were preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid to thousands of starving Somalis. In a military mission he described as “God’s work,” Bush said that America must act to save more than a million Somali lives, but reassured Americans that “this operation is not open-ended” and that “we will not stay one day longer than is absolutely necessary.” Unfortunately, America’s humanitarian troops became embroiled in Somalia’s political conflict, and the controversial mission stretched on for 15 months before being abruptly called off by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

In 1992, clan-based civil-war fighting and one of the worst African droughts of the century created famine conditions that threatened one-fourth of Somalia’s population with starvation. In August 1992, the United Nations began a peacekeeping mission to the country to ensure the distribution of food and medical aid, but it was largely unsuccessful. With U.N. troops unable to control Somalia’s warring factions, security deteriorating, and thousands of tons of food stranded in portside warehouses, President Bush ordered a large U.S. military force to the area on December 4, 1992. Five days later, the first U.S. Marines landed in the first phase of “Operation Restore Hope.”

With the aid of U.S. military troops and forces from other nations, the U.N. succeeded in distributing desperately needed food to many starving Somalis. However, with factional fighting continuing unabated, and the U.N. without an effective agenda to resolve the political strife, there seemed no clear end in sight to Operation Restore Hope when President Bill Clinton took office in January 1993.

(snip)

They made a movie about an incident during that conflict with U.S. troops there -

For Somali Immigrants, All Politics Really Is Local