US President Donald Trump launched a verbal attack on Somali immigrants on Tuesday, as federal authorities prepared to launch a major immigration crackdown targeting hundreds of undocumented Somalis in the state of Minnesota.

In a long rant to reporters, Trump said he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States, claiming that residents of the East African country “contributed nothing” to the US while relying on aid. Trump did not provide any evidence to support these claims.

This was just the latest in a string of disparaging verbal attacks the US president has launched at the country’s Somali community. He posted similar remarks on social media last week and during his first term as president. Trump has also repeatedly verbally targeted Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is a US citizen of Somali descent.

The president has appeared to focus on immigrants from developing countries with harsh remarks or policies, except for white South Africans, for whom the US has increased quotas.

The US has paused immigration from 19 countries deemed “high risk”, citing last week’s fatal shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national. At the end of October, the Trump administration reduced the number of refugees the US will accept next year to just 7,500 – the lowest number since the 1980 Refugee Act – with preference to be given to white South Africans.

Then, on Tuesday, US media reported that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would carry out an operation in Somali neighbourhoods in the next few days.

Much of the Somali diaspora has settled in the US within the past 50 years. Here’s what we know about why Trump is targeting the community now.

What did Trump say?

Speaking to reporters following a US Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said he didn’t want Somalis in the US, describing them as “garbage”.

“We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” he said.

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump told reporters without specifying whether he was referring to citizens or irregular migrants.

“Some people will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care … Their country is no good for a reason … Your country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country,” he said.

“These are people who do nothing but complain,” Trump continued. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

Last week, in an address to the nation following the shooting of two National Guard members, which left one dead and another critically injured, Trump ordered that people from 19 blacklisted countries who held US green or permanent residency cards be “re-examined”.

He then pivoted to the Somali community in Minnesota in that address, saying, “Hundreds of thousands of Somalians are ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state.”

What action is the Trump administration planning against the Somali community?

US media reported on Tuesday that an ICE operation focused on Somali communities in the Minneapolis-St Paul area will take place in the next few days.

A sweep by ICE officers will round up undocumented people for deportation, AP reported, citing a person familiar with the plans.

At least 100 ICE agents are expected to flood the area. The New York Times, also citing sources close to the plan, said Somalis in the process of seeking legal status could also be swept up.

Several states in recent months have experienced ICE raids on undocumented people, including Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York City and Phoenix. By October, at least 527,000 people had been deported from the US since the Trump administration took office in January, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz slammed the plan for Minneapolis, saying that while the state welcomed support for prosecuting crime, “pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to a problem”.

City officials also condemned President Trump’s attack on the Somali community at a press conference on Tuesday and promised not to cooperate with ICE agents conducting migrant checks.

“Obviously, this is a frightening moment for our Somali community,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, describing the possible move as “terrorising”.

“That’s not American. That’s not what we are about,” he said. “To our Somali community, we love you, and we stand with you.”

Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman, who came to the US from Somalia when he was 14, said at the conference: “I know many families are fearful … the city of Minneapolis stands behind you.”

“Somali Americans are here to stay,” he added. “We love this state. We love this country. This is home. We’re not going anywhere.”

Has Trump targeted the Somali community before this?

Yes. On November 21, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was “immediately” terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali immigrants in Minnesota, referring to a programme designed to provide emergency refuge for people whose countries are in crisis. About 705 Somalis are on that programme.

Without providing evidence, Trump claimed that “Somali gangs are terrorising the people of that great State” and accused Governor Walz, without proof, of overseeing a state that had become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.

“Send them back to where they came from,” Trump said. “It’s OVER!

What triggered his remarks about the Somali community?

Trump’s accusations about the Somali community come after a conservative activist, Christopher Rufo, published allegations of welfare fraud against Somalis in Minnesota in a magazine called City Journal on November 19.

In the report, Rufo, citing unnamed “counterterrorism sources” and a police detective, claimed that Somalis benefiting from US welfare programmes were sending back huge amounts in remittances to their country, and that some of that money had ended up with al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked armed group controlling some rural parts of Somalia.

One of the programmes Rufo referred to was fraudulent – the privately funded, $300m Feeding Our Future charity programme, which falsely claimed to be feeding millions of children amid the COVID-19 crisis but instead stole state funds.

Federal prosecutors have secured convictions for the ringleader, Aimee Bock, who is white, and several Somali-Americans.

In July, Somalia became one of 12 countries whose citizens are subject to a US travel ban. It was similarly placed under a travel ban during the first Trump administration.

Why has Trump targeted Ilhan Omar?

Trump also made disparaging remarks about Democratic congresswoman Omar in his Tuesday attack, calling her “garbage”.

Omar, 43, who emigrated from Somalia to the US in 1995 as a child, has represented her Minnesota district in the US Congress since 2019 and is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration.

“She’s an incompetent person; she’s a real terrible person,” Trump said on Tuesday, adding without evidence that Omar “hates everybody” and is anti-Semitic.

Trump’s verbal attacks on Omar are not new. The president has repeatedly criticised the representative, routinely picking on her hijab and mode of dressing.

Omar hit back on the latest of Trump’s latest comments on Tuesday, saying: “His obsession with me is creepy.”

Omar also pushed back against claims that Minnesota funds have been diverted to al-Shabab or that Somali gangs are rife in the state. “I challenge you to come forward with evidence … if at all there’s any,” she said at a briefing last week. “You can’t victimise a whole community for the actions of a few.”

How large is the Somali community in the US?

There are currently about 260,000 people of Somali descent residing in the US, according to data from the US Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. They are among the largest Somali communities outside Somalia, with other major diaspora communities found in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden and Canada.

Some Somalis arrived in the US in the 1960s as students, after the then-British Somaliland gained independence. Later, there were larger waves of people fleeing the troubled East African country’s protracted civil war, which stemmed from armed resistance to the military government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. That lasted from 1988 until 2000, although the government continues to battle rebel groups and armed militants.

Most Somalis in the US live in Minnesota, where a number of social programmes are in existence, particularly in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, home to 63,000 people of Somali descent. States like Ohio (21,000), Washington (15,000), Virginia (3,953), Georgia (3,538), and California also have significant populations, according to the World Population Review.

How has the Somali diaspora fared in the US?

Minneapolis hosts several hundred Somali businesses, mostly in retail and food services and including restaurants, grocery stores and clothing stores.

Somalis arriving in the state during their native country’s civil war often faced challenges with learning English, but were able to take unskilled jobs, such as at meatpacking plants, according to a 2017 report by local publication MinnPost.

As the community grew, more Somalis branched into finance, health and education sectors. They also started getting into local politics. In 2019, Omar made history as the first Somali-American representative in the US Congress.

The average age of Somalis in Minnesota is young at 19, according to a 2023 report by the Minnesota state government. Most (53,000) speak English with professional or limited proficiency, but the group also has one of the lowest levels of educational attainment among foreign populations in the state.

Somalis are often described as active in the labour force, although more Somali men are employed than women. Contrary to Trump’s claims that Somalis do not work in the US, about 84 percent of male Somali refugees between 25 and 64 years were employed in the state of Kentucky compared to 64 percent of females, according to a 2016 report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

About 58 percent of Somalis in Minnesota were born in the US. Of those born abroad, about 87 percent are naturalised citizens. Nearly half of that group entered the US in 2010 or later.

US authorities have in the past struggled to prevent the recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabab and other armed groups. In 2007, more than 20 Somali-American men travelled to Somalia to join al-Shabab. However, only a few cases have been reported since then. In September, a 23-year-old man in Minnesota pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to join a designated armed group.