ARTICLE AD BOX
Members of Minnesota’s Somali community gathered with faith leaders and supporters on Friday to continue speaking out against a federal immigration operation underway in the Twin Cities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement late Thursday issued its first statement confirming the operation, which it’s calling “Operation Metro Surge.” That statement came after several days of reports that ICE was going to be targeting members of Minnesota’s Somali community who have deportation orders.
The ICE statement said federal agents have arrested at least 12 people with criminal records during the operation that started on Monday. The agency said all were in the U.S. illegally — from Somalia, Mexico or El Salvador. It was not clear how many other people may have been detained in the operation — or how long the federal crackdown is set to last.
Most members of the Somali community in Minnesota are U.S. citizens and local leaders have raised concerns that citizens will get caught up in the enforcement operation.
Khalid Omar — an organizer with ISAIAH, a Minnesota faith coalition — spoke at a press conference after Friday prayer at a mosque in Bloomington. He said there are reports of Somali Americans who are American citizens being stopped and asked whether they have a passport, and whether they have citizenship.
“What’s happening to our Somali Americans in Minnesota is unacceptable, un-American, and it’s extremely dangerous,” he said at the press conference, alongside other faith leaders and Minnesota elected officials who also criticized President Donald Trump’s recent disparaging comments about Somali Americans.
“Our country is at a moment in history right now,” Omar said. “We’re at a moment where we have to decide who we are as a country. And here in Minnesota and here in this room, we are deciding that we are here for our neighbors and we are here for all Americans.”
Maria Anderson-Lippert is a pastor at the University Lutheran Church of Hope in Minneapolis. She said she lives in a neighborhood near the mosque. When she and her husband moved to the area, she said they were glad to learn how many mosques were within walking distance of their house.
"We intentionally chose to live in this community with our Somali neighbors because our differences and our diversity make our community stronger, more resilient, more loving," Anderson-Lippert said. "And the best place, and I mean that — the best place to raise our children."
Somalis were part of the midwifery team that helped Anderson-Lippert when she gave birth, she said. Members of the community have also provided care to her church members in the hospital and at nursing homes, she added.
"I look around this room, and I see friends and I see neighbors,” said Anderson-Lippet. “My promise to you, my Somali neighbors, is that we will not forget. We are with you," she said. "My congregation and community is with you, because that is what our Christian faith demands of us."
Akubar Waged, who came to Minnesota 30 years ago when he was 15 years old, said overall he has felt welcomed in the state.
"We are not what the President is saying to us,” said Waged. “We are Minnesotan and Somalians. We lived here more than, like, 30 years. So someone saying a word is not going to change anything. We are here in community, in Minnesota."
English (US) ·