Hundreds packed a hall of Karmel Mall on Sunday to gather in solidarity with the Somali community after President Donald Trump called for elimination of a program that offers temporary protective status for people from the country.
Khalid Omar speaks to hundreds gathered at Karmel Mall in Minneapolis on Sunday. The event comes after President Donald Trump called for ending the temporary protected status of hundreds of Somali migrants in Minnesota.
Trump deemed Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” in a social media post on Friday. And he alleged — without providing proof — that Somali gangs were terrorizing the state.
Some of the people charged and convicted in those cases came to Minnesota from Somalia, although it’s not clear that any of them are on temporary protected status.
A Trump administration official on Sunday suggested that the program’s elimination could take time. The call for its ending struck fear in members of the Somali community in Minnesota.
Khalid Omar, a community organizer with ISAIAH, said the post put a target on the backs of Somalis in Minnesota. A year after Trump made negative comments before, a Bloomington mosque was bombed.
“He decided to also pit our communities against each other and attack our community. And what we’re saying is that that is a distraction,” Omar said. “The reality is that people are struggling. Our communities are struggling. And when one of our communities gets attacked, the way we react is we come together as Minnesotans, have a meal together.”
Members of the faith community, local elected officials and others joined local Somalis for a potluck of sambusas, fruit plates, mac and cheese and trays of cookies and pies.
“I honestly cannot think of anything more American, more Minnesotan, than a potluck,” said Pastor Martha Bardwell of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. “This is what this event is all about. And yet, our president would have us, believe — us non-Somalis believe —that the Somalis are terrorizing our communities. We know that’s not true.”
Ali Gaashaan, a community leader, said Trump’s portrayal is dangerous.
“You are creating hate. You are defining our communities. We know what you’re trying to do,” Gaashaan said. “Our job as a community is to stay as neighbors, to stay united, to love this state; and we are the first to stand for Minnesota. We’re the first to defend, and we’re here to stay.”
Across the country, there are 705 Somali migrants with temporary protected status, per a congressional report issued earlier this year. Hundreds of them are in Minnesota. But far more — tens of thousands of Somali Minnesotans — are legal residents.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem suggested that the move wouldn’t be immediate during a Sunday visit to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Instead, she said federal officials would assess whether Somalia should remain on the list of designated countries.
“We plan to follow the process that’s in law to evaluate TPS and how it applies to different countries and individuals from them. It was never meant to be an asylum program,” Noem said. “It was always meant to be put in place after an incident or an event on a temporary basis, and that’s what the evaluation will be.”
Somalia was first added as a temporary protected status designated country in 1991 after civil war broke out there. That status has been extended more than two dozen times as U.S. officials found that it was too dangerous for Somalis in the United States to return to the war-torn East African nation. And the latest extension is set to run through March.
The Trump administration has sought to roll back temporary protected status for migrants from other countries, too. Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. from Venezuela and Haiti who had temporary protected status have been affected.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he’d move to sue if the Trump administration moved ahead to eliminate temporary protected status for Somali migrants in Minnesota.
