Escalation of rhetoric from White House targeting Somalis is 'unhinged,' says Somali scholar
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President Donald Trump is escalating his rhetoric targeting the Somali community in Minnesota. It began when conservative news outlet, City Journal, claimed that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs have flowed to the Somali terrorism group al-Shabab.
The allegation refers to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme in which federal prosecutors have charged 78 people connected to the defunct Twin Cities nonprofit with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. The defendants in the case include people of Somali descent.
Following the report, Trump said he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somali migrants living in Minnesota.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post Monday that his agency was investigating allegations of money going to al-Shabab.
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The Trump administration announced a federal immigration operation targeting Somali people in Minnesota. Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he did not want Somali immigrants in the country.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” he said. “Their country is no good for a reason.”
Ahmed Samatar is a Somali studies expert at Macalester College. Samatar told MPR News host Nina Moini that he feels it’s unfair that the entire nationality has been lumped together by the Trump administration.
“The inflammatory rhetoric that kind of lifts all Somalis together in Minnesota is both inaccurate, unfair and, I think in the end, mutually destructive.”
Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community of up to 80,000 people. Samatar said that the majority of Somalis in Minnesota have become successful in all parts of society.
“They have adapted well to the circumstances in the state of Minnesota,” said Samatar. “So I think that has to be acknowledged, so that the Somalis are not labeled as ill-fitting people in the United States or the state of Minnesota.”
President Donald Trump has targeted other immigrant communities in recent days, including Afghans following the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national. The U.S. paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.
“The swinging of accusations is so unhinged in many ways that it creates an atmosphere in which American citizens themselves — from all races and all communities and all religious beliefs — might be brought into confrontations that are not necessary and therefore undermine the collective civic solidarity among American people,” said Samatar.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation with Minnesota Now host Nina Moini and Ahmed Samatar.
