Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images
President Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on Somali immigrants, disparaging them as "garbage" and declaring he doesn't want them in the U.S, per HuffPost.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump said of Somalis during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (December 2). “Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.”
The president went on to call Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and “her friends” “garbage" and suggested that they “go back to where they came from.”
This isn't the first time Trump has targeted Somalis, including Omar, who emigrated from Somalia in 1995 as a child. However, Trump escalated his attacks last week after conservative activist Christopher Rufo shared unsubstantiated allegations that stolen funds in Minnesota were routed to al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked militant group that controls parts of Somalia.
Trump's tirade against Somalis also came days after the fatal shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. The president used the incident to question immigrants from Somalia and to threaten an end to temporary legal protections for some Somalis.
Amid the comments, a federal official told CNN that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing an operation targeting undocumented Somali immigrants in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Minnesota cities are home to one of America's most deeply rooted Somali diasporas.
Trump claimed Somali immigrants “aren’t people that work” and “do nothing but complain,” despite decades of evidence of Somali entrepreneurship and civic participation in the region. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the looming ICE operation and Trump's rhetoric.
“To again villainize an entire group is ridiculous under any circumstances. … Minneapolis is proud to be home to the largest Somali community in the entire country," Frey said in a statement.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called reports of the operation a “PR stunt."
“Pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to a problem," Walz said in a statement.
Omar also responded to Trump's latest attack on social media, saying, “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
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