Minnesota on ICE: With the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis has become the frontline of POTUS Trump\u2019s incitement and the reasons why go back decades and across the globe to Somalia.<\/p>\n
What Drew Trump\u2019s Attention to Minnesota?<\/strong><\/p>\n Most recently, two factors have likely drawn the attention of Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: a media frenzy over fraud scandals and the presence of the largest Somali community outside of Africa.<\/p>\n The first has provided Trump and the broader right with a rich opportunity to attack social spending and entitlement programs.<\/p>\n The second is timely because of the continuing importance of Somalia, most specifically the breakaway Somaliland region<\/a>, in geo-politics.<\/p>\n The Changing Demographics of Minnesota<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s put on our Stephen Miller glasses and try to imagine how Minnesota\u2019s demographic trends are seen by our racists-in-charge.<\/p>\n This chart and paragraphs from Wikipedia\u2019s entry on The Demographics of Minnesota<\/a> is liable to make any blood-and-soil ethic supremacist type\u2019s blood boil:<\/p>\n African Americans are 7.0% of the population, a figure that has steadily increased over the past three decades. This growth is in part attributed to the influx of immigrants from East Africa, particularly Somalia and Ethiopia, who reside mainly in cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul. pic.twitter.com\/ZXcw71zNQk<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) January 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But it took more than just a growing African immigrant population to make Minnesota and its Somali diaspora population an attractive target for POTUS Trump and put Minnesota on ICE.<\/p>\n Colton Baldus accurately summed up<\/a> the goals of the MAGA campaign against Minnesota as being \u201cto push the deportation agenda in a Democratic-governed state, defund programs that working people rely on, and flip Minnesota to the Republican column in the 2026 midterm elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump Aims His Racist Rhetoric At Somali-Americans <\/strong><\/p>\n In December Trump tipped his hand that Somali-Americans were a priority target with an \u201coutburst (that) was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry\u201d per The New York Times<\/a> in early December. Here\u2019s more from the NYT:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don\u2019t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it,\u201d Mr. Trump added as Vice President JD Vance banged the table in encouragement.<\/p>\n He said Somalia \u201cstinks and we don\u2019t want them in our country.\u201d He described Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who came to the United States from Somalia as a refugee and became a citizen 25 years ago, as \u201cgarbage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe could go one way or the other, and we\u2019re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cShe\u2019s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren\u2019t people who work. These aren\u2019t people who say, \u2018Let\u2019s go, come on, let\u2019s make this place great.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s the fascist value proposition in a few paragraphs: over-simplify history, name a scapegoat, and promise brutal and swift action. End result: Minnesota on ICE.<\/p>\n Right-Wing Echo Chamber Booming About Somali Minnesota<\/strong><\/p>\n The proximate cause of the current Minnesota on ICE situation is right-wing influencer Nick Shirley and his YouTube video \u201cI Investigated Minnesota\u2019s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n As The Intercept chronicled<\/a>:<\/p>\n The video, which has been viewed more than 2.2 million times on YouTube and millions more on other platforms, sparked a renewed crackdown in Minneapolis, with the Department of Homeland Security announcing on Monday it would visit 30 sites suspected of fraud across the city. A DHS official told CBS News Minnesota its agents would focus on a \u201clittle of everything,\u201d when asked whether immigration enforcement would be a part of the crackdown. Threatening arrests, the agency posted a video to X in which agents enter a smoke shop and question an employee about a nearby day care center.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time the conservative YouTuber has gotten the attention of the Trump administration. Shirley participated in President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cRoundtable on Antifa\u201d in October after an altercation at an anti-ICE protest. At age 23, his videos aren\u2019t merely influencing his audiences \u2014 they\u2019re also influencing government action. Regardless of media efforts to debunk Shirley\u2019s claims<\/a>, January 2, more than 2000 DHA agents were aiming<\/a> to put Minnesota on ICE.<\/p>\n Just a few days later, the campaign landed a bigger catch: the political career of Governor Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.<\/p>\n Tim Walz Sunk by Scandal<\/strong><\/p>\n On January 5, Walz released a statement<\/a> announcing that he was ending his campaign for a third term as Minnesota governor.<\/p>\n Key quotes:<\/p>\n In September, I announced that I would run for a historic third term as Minnesota\u2019s Governor. And I have every confidence that, if I gave it my all, I would succeed in that effort.<\/p>\n But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can\u2019t give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can\u2019t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.<\/p>\n So I\u2019ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Before he got to the money quote he tried to land a few counter-punches on Trump and attempted to defend his record in office:<\/p>\n For the last several years, an organized group of criminals have sought to take advantage of our state\u2019s generosity. And even as we make progress in the fight against the fraudsters, we now see an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t mince words here. Donald Trump and his allies \u2013 in Washington, in St. Paul, and online \u2013 want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They\u2019ve already begun by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And they have no intention of stopping there.<\/p>\n Make no mistake: We should be concerned about fraud in our state government. We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can\u2019t earn the public\u2019s trust. That\u2019s why, over the past few years, we\u2019ve made systemic changes to the way we do business.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve gone to the legislature time and again to get more tools to combat fraud. We\u2019ve fired people who weren\u2019t doing their jobs. We\u2019ve seen people go to jail for stealing from our state. We\u2019ve cut off whole streams of funding, in partnership with the federal government, where we saw widespread criminal activity. We\u2019ve put new locks on the doors of our remaining programs, and we\u2019ve hired a new head of program integrity to make sure those locks can\u2019t be broken.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s a sudden end to a political career that for a few weeks in 2024 seemed headed for The US Naval Observatory<\/a> and possibly the White House itself.<\/p>\n But Trump wasn\u2019t satisfied with Walz\u2019 head on the White House trophy wall, there is social spending to slash.<\/p>\n Trump Regime Cuts Funds<\/strong><\/p>\n By the 10th, POTUS Trump\u2019s gang in the White House had seized the day to deliver what Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE couldn\u2019t: massive cuts to social services.<\/p>\n Per The Guardian<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Trump administration announced it is suspending $129m in federal benefit payments to Minnesota amid allegations of widespread fraud in the state.<\/p>\n The secretary of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brooke Rollins, shared a letter on Friday on social media that was addressed to Minnesota\u2019s governor, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, notifying them of the administration\u2019s decision and citing investigations into alleged fraud conducted by local non-profits and businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite a staggering, wide-reaching fraud scandal, your administrations refuse to provide basic information or take common sense measures to stop fraud. The Trump administration refuses to allow such fraud to continue,\u201d Rollins wrote.<\/p>\n Rollins asked Walz and Frey to provide the USDA with justification for all federal spending from 20 January 2025 to the present within 30 days. She is also requiring that all federal payments to the state moving forward require the same justification.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The cuts in Minnesota were part of a Trump admin attempt to freeze $10 billion in social services to five states<\/a>. A judge has temporarily put that on hold<\/a>, but time will tell who prevails.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll come back to the fraud scandal that helped put Minnesota on ICE but first, there\u2019s another bit of historical context to provide.<\/p>\n How did Minnesota become a target-rich environment for xenophobes in the Trump regime?<\/p>\n Why Are There So Many Somalis in Minnesota?<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at how the Somalis got to Minnesota. This Amazon review of Ahmed I. Yusuf \u2018s book \u201cSomalis in Minnesota\u201d<\/a> tells the story concisely and debunks Trump\u2019s claims that the people of Somalia were solely responsible for their own suffering:<\/p>\n In the 1980s the young country of Somalia found itself stuck between two superpowers and wracked by violence and misery. A few years earlier, Somali General Siad Barre, backed by the Soviet Union, had invaded and claimed lands in neighboring Ethiopia.<\/p>\n The Soviet Union then surprisingly switched alliances and supported Ethiopia. Barre called on the United States and Britain for help, but in the end he had to pull out of Ethiopia. Subsequent coup attempts and executions destabilized and divided Somalia into war zones. Famine followed.<\/p>\n International food aid couldn\u2019t penetrate the region\u2019s carnage and corruption and the U.N. sanctioned humanitarian military intervention. An attempt to capture warlord Farrah Aidid, who had attacked Pakistani troops, led to the infamous \u201cBlack Hawk Down\u201d incident.<\/p>\n American troops were killed and President Clinton ordered the U.S. to leave. All other countries followed suit, leaving a smoldering Somalia behind. With few options remaining, people fled.<\/p>\n A particular group of refugees went to Kenya and, following more indescribable hardship, some eventually found their way to San Diego. Lacking opportunities in California, a 1992 help wanted ad for a food processing plant inspired some to move to the considerably more frigid climate of Marshall, Minnesota.<\/p>\n They found work almost immediately, encouraging others northward. More and more followed. They established communities in Minnesota\u2019s welcoming and relatively tolerant atmosphere. Even more followed.<\/p>\n Soon, some relocated to Minneapolis and continued building Somali communities. This continued until Minnesota, particularly the city of Minneapolis, could claim the largest population of Somalis in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And that population of Somalis busied themselves by building economic and political power.<\/p>\n The Somali Diaspora Grew and Thrived in Minnesota<\/strong><\/p>\n Somali diaspora chronicler Ahmed I. Yusef spoke to The Sahan Journal<\/a> and described what his community did in Minnesota after arriving:<\/p>\n The first Somalis to be directly resettled from refugee camps in Africa to Minnesota were largely people from Mogadishu who began arriving in 1996. The large influx of Southeast Asian refugees in the 1970s and \u201980s paved the way for Somali resettlement in Minnesota, Yusuf said. Groups like Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities had experience helping refugees establish themselves in the North Star State.<\/p>\n The work done by African Americans in the fight for civil rights also helped ease the arrival for Somalis in Minnesota, Yusuf said. Progressive civil rights politicians from Minnesota like Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale helped create a welcoming climate. \u201cThe entire landscape of south Minneapolis, particularly the area adjacent to downtown, has completely changed and been revitalized,\u201d Yusuf said.<\/p>\n Soon, Somalis began to take seats in local government. In 2010, Hussein Samatar was elected to the Minneapolis school board, making him the first elected Somali official in the state. Three years later, Abdi Warsame became the first Somali elected to the Minneapolis City Council.<\/p>\n In 2016, Ilhan Omar became the first Somali elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, and the first Somali woman to win election in Minnesota. Two years later, she won a seat in Congress.<\/p>\n Since then, several Somali Americans have been elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. In 2020, Omar Fateh became the first Somali American elected to the Minnesota Senate; Zaynab Mohamed became the first Somali woman elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Astute readers will see why Trump, Vance, Miller and the MAGA movement see the Somali community in Minnesota as not only a target, but also a threat.<\/p>\n But like any community of recent immigrants, some Somalis have been tempted to take short cuts on the road to the American Dream.<\/p>\n The Fraud Is Real<\/strong><\/p>\n While it\u2019s never a good idea to take GOP noise machine claims at face value, there has been a massive fraud exposed in Minnesota under Walz\u2019 watch that helps explain Minnesota on ICE.<\/p>\n Axios has a decent timeline<\/a> of the whole thing that helps explain how \u201cpressure from the Trump administration turned a state scandal that has periodically dominated Minnesota headlines for at least six years into national news.\u201d<\/p>\n Some key quotes:<\/p>\n For the last several years, most attention in Minnesota has focused on what prosecutors called the largest-ever case of pandemic-aid fraud: a sprawling scheme to bilk\u00a0a federally funded school meals program<\/a>.<\/p>\n With program rules loosened to ensure children didn\u2019t starve during COVID, prosecutors say fraudsters billed for\u00a0at least $250 million-worth of meals that they did not serve<\/a>. To date, more than 70 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted.<\/p>\n Walz administration officials have long maintained they tried to intervene to stop potentially fraudulent meal payments, but court challenges stymied their efforts.<\/p>\n But Minnesota\u2019s independent Legislative Auditor has disputed their argument,\u00a0concluding in a 2024 report<\/a>\u00a0that the state\u2019s Department of Education \u201cfailed to act on warning signs\u201d \u2014 and could\u2019ve legally intervened to ensure money stopped flowing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Minnesota Public Radio has a more detailed and Minnesota-centric timeline of the scandal<\/a> that helps explain the current Minnesota on ICE situation.<\/p>\n This New York Times piece from November<\/a> has more on the scandal:<\/p>\n Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota\u2019s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars\u2019 worth of social services that were never provided.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers\u2019 money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota\u2019s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors. The prosecutors focused on a Minneapolis nonprofit organization called Feeding Our Future, which became a partner to dozens of local businesses that enrolled as feeding sites.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Real But Overstated?<\/strong><\/p>\n So the scandal is real, but The Center for Media and Democracy has made a strong case<\/a> that the MSM has done its usual job of elevating right-wing agit-prop to the center of the national discussion.<\/p>\n Key quotes:<\/p>\n CBS\u2014under its new owners, the\u00a0Ellison family<\/a>\u2014along with the\u00a0Murdoch trinity<\/a>\u00a0of Fox News, the\u00a0New York Post\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Wall Street Journal,<\/em>\u00a0have covered the story aggressively, at times picking up\u00a0unconfirmed accounts from conservative influencers<\/a>\u00a0that have spun into\u00a0wild charges about vote-buying and cover-ups<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>provided\u00a0front-page coverage<\/a>\u00a0to a Sunday news story echoing key arguments made in Trump administration talking points: that a Nordic-style welfare state in Minnesota, combined with criminal tendencies inherent to the state\u2019s Somali population, created an environment ripe for fraud. The\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>also focuses on the defendants\u2019 claims that they were being persecuted for racial reasons. More indictments were filed this year, extending the alleged fraud scheme to a\u00a0housing stabilization program<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0health care program<\/a>.\u00a0CBS<\/a>,\u00a0Fox<\/a>, the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, and the\u00a0New York Post<\/em><\/a>\u00a0have all repeated DOJ claims that the frauds now exceed $1 billion. Joseph Thompson, the federal prosecutor leading the case, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from CMD asking for clarification on DOJ\u2019s monetary estimates.<\/p>\n The only citations supporting the $1-billion claim in those stories come from a department that has been\u00a0weaponized<\/a>\u00a0against its political enemies and is prone to \u201cunprecedented errors<\/a>\u201d that seriously undermine its credibility.<\/p>\n Based on what the DOJ has actually filed in court, the\u00a0Minneapolis Star-Tribune<\/em><\/a>\u00a0calculated the cost of the alleged fraud schemes to be $217.7 million over multiple years, while noting that the number was likely to grow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I\u2019ll conclude the tale of Minnesota on ICE on Wednesday with a look at the intra-Democratic party politics that helped land Minneapolis where it is today.<\/p>\n It will include a retelling of the 2025 mayoral primary that saw Mayor Jacob Frey hold off a spirited challenge from State Senator Omar Fateh. I should probably have covered it last summer along with my pieces on the New York City mayor\u2019s race<\/a>, California governor\u2019s race<\/a> and Maine US senate primary<\/a>, but alas there wasn\u2019t world enough nor time. <\/p>\n We\u2019ll try to catch up on that, plus Frey\u2019s role in the 2020 BLM protests and Minnesotans\u2019 attempts to resist Minnesota on ICE, the connection to Somaliland (and Israel and the UAE) next time.<\/p>\n\n
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Significant shifts in racial demographics were evident by the turn of the 21st century. By 2010, the White population was 85.3% and the Black population increased to 5.2%. The Asian population rose to 4%, and those identifying as two or more races rose to 2.4%. This trend was reflected in the 2020 census as well.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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State regulators said Monday that inspectors had visited the day cares mentioned in the video in the past six months, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a>, that there was no evidence of fraud at the sites during those unannounced visits, and some of the centers have already been closed or suspended. According to Minnesota Public Radio<\/a>, state Republican lawmakers had steered Shirley toward the day care centers he visited in the video.
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Despite Shirley\u2019s insistence that race and religion have nothing to do with his investigation, the YouTuber has a long track record of using his man-on-the-street videos to target immigrants in the U.S., platforming individuals who spread xenophobic and Islamophobic beliefs and conspiracy theories. While Shirley\u2019s videos include interviews with those protesting against such hate, he often presents immigration and Islam as a growing threat taking over the country. Combined with sensationalized headlines \u2014 \u201cExposing Dangerous Illegal Migrant Scammers\u201d or \u201cThe UK\u2019s Insane Migrant Invasion\u201d \u2014 the end result is often a portrait of immigrants as lawbreakers, a societal threat, and a strain on government resources.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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The late \u201990s and early 2000s saw hundreds of Somali entrepreneurs open businesses in Minnesota, and families establish themselves in areas of Minneapolis that had fallen into disrepair.<\/p>\n\n
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The first public sign of a major problem in the state\u2019s social services system came in 2022, when federal prosecutors began charging defendants in connection to a program aimed at feeding hungry children. Merrick B. Garland, attorney general during the Biden administration, called it the country\u2019s largest pandemic relief fraud scheme.<\/p>\n\n
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