ICE agents in Cedar-Riverside acting 'without regard for civil rights,' Minnesota rep says
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Tuesday night at a rally in Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump doubled down on his xenophobic comments against Somali Americans.
Meanwhile, Minnesota's Somali communities are also under threat from increased ICE enforcement in the state.
Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL-Minneapolis, was born in Somalia and represents part of the city in the State House of Representatives.
He spoke with MPR News host Clay Masters about what he’s seen and heard over the past week.
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Press play above to listen to their conversation, or read a transcript below, edited lightly for clarity.
In an interview with Jen White on NPR that aired Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Ilhan Omar said her son was in a mosque recently when ICE agents arrived and asked for documentation from everyone inside. Have you interacted with ICE since they have increased their presence in Minneapolis?
I have, and the community is on edge.
Over the last few days, ICE has been indiscriminately taking action against the entire community without regard for civil rights. In fact, the incident that happened today when they walked into apartment complexes and started asking people on the streets about their status, asking them if they’re citizens, is unacceptable.
We all support lawful, humane enforcement of immigration, but not when you’re doing that in a threat-based way, terrorizing neighborhoods. We’ve seen what happened at Augsburg University to the student.
We have seen what happened to our neighbors yesterday, which I spent most of the day in the afternoon trying to plead with the ICE agent to release a U.S. citizen who they detained in the neighborhood, and they refused to even acknowledge my presence and even showing them his passport card. And nobody was responding to me, and they took him and processed him before I could assist his family.
Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration over its deployment of the National Guard. In California, lawmakers banned face coverings for law enforcement. Are you anticipating any state actions against increased threats from ICE?
I’m hoping we’ll take actions. We are not in session right now, but we are contemplating many aspects of things that are happening on the ground. We don’t want to be reactive. We want to become more proactive and come up with long-term plans. We need to work with our federal partners to ensure that these abuses do not continue. We need to work with the state attorney general at this moment.
We have seen the mobilization of legal support. We have seen the rapid response teams. That is not coming from any state or local agencies or federal agencies. It’s happening more organic, and people are organizing within different neighborhoods, and that is something I think we will have to learn from.
What are you personally focused on in the days ahead?
As Minnesotans, we believe in dignity, safety and fairness for all. What happened in the last few days does not reflect our values, and we will continue to pursue accountability until our communities feel safe again.
