As Minnesota anticipates more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Minnesota—a state where many Somali immigrants are accused of defrauding welfare programs—Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city’s law enforcement will not work with federal agents.
“Our police officers are not ICE agents; they will not cooperate with ICE agents,” Frey said at a Dec. 2 news conference.
ICE has been conducting large-scale immigration enforcement operations in a number of cities, sometimes drawing opposition from protesters and from Democratic leaders.
At the news conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O‘Hara and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III emphasized support for law-abiding Somalis and other immigrants who hold jobs and run businesses. People who are fearful of ICE action should inform themselves about their rights, the officials said. O’Hara also said that his officers “absolutely have a duty to intervene” if people’s rights are being violated.
O'Hara said his officers “do work with federal law enforcement literally every day around violent crime, around people smuggling fentanyl into the country, gang violence, those types of things.”
He also said, “Federal law enforcement is aware that we absolutely will have nothing to do with anything related to immigration enforcement.”
That has been true for years in the Twin Cities, which are among more than a half-dozen so-called sanctuary cities that the Justice Department has sued over policies that shield illegal immigrants.
The pending lawsuit, coupled with the new public remarks from the Twin Cities’ leaders, reflects increasing tensions between Minnesota and the federal government.
After recent publicity over massive Minnesota welfare-fraud schemes that mostly involve suspects of Somali origin, President Donald Trump announced plans to end “temporary protected status” for Somalis in the North Star State. Minnesota Democrats, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Gov. Tim Walz, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, have criticized the president’s actions.
At Trump’s direction, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she investigated immigration programs in Minnesota. She reported finding that “50 percent of visa applications” and other immigration-related programs were fraudulent.
Noem, speaking during the president’s Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting, did not specify which immigrant groups were allegedly submitting false immigration applications.
During “Operation Twin Shield” earlier this year, ICE, the FBI, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) found 275 cases of suspected immigration fraud in and around Minneapolis and St. Paul, USCIS officials said, calling it a first-of-its-kind operation to detect and deter immigration fraud.
Mayors Defending Somalis Amid Fraud Cases
The two mayors, Frey and Carter, said that the entire Somali community is being unfairly targeted and wrongfully vilified over the actions of a few.
Since 2022, charges have been brought against 78 people, dozens of whom have been convicted or await trial, in the Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future scandal, which involved false claims by a nonprofit and its affiliates that they provided meals to needy children.
A pair of other welfare-fraud scandals emerging from the region are still developing. Altogether, the fraudulent claims amount to billions of dollars, authorities have said. The fraud was allegedly committed mostly by Somalis who sent much of the stolen money back to their homeland. The Treasury Department is investigating claims that the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab took a percentage of those financial transfers.
Frey and Carter emphasized that most of the estimated 80,000 Somalis living in Minnesota are U.S. citizens. Seventy-eight percent of them live in the Twin Cities, according to Minnesota Compass, making Minneapolis home to the United States’ largest Somali community. Frey said he is proud of that fact.
On Dec. 3, the day after the Minnesota news conference, a reporter asked Trump to react to Frey’s expression of pride in the Somali community. The president criticized Frey’s comments, adding that Somalis “have taken billions of dollars out of” the United States and hail from a crime-ridden nation.
Trump has also stated that Somalis who complain about the United States are unwanted.
The Epoch Times sought a comment from Frey, who did not immediately respond.
Frey criticized Trump’s stance at the news conference.
“He’s wrong, and we want them here,” Frey said. “Somali people have been an extraordinary benefit. ... They have started businesses and created jobs. They have added to the cultural fabric of what Minneapolis is. They were welcoming to me when I first came out to Minneapolis.”
‘Zero Tolerance’ for Impeding ICE
Both mayors expressed concern that ICE will make mistakes and snare lawful Somali American citizens once the illegal immigrant dragnet hits the Twin Cities.
In response to the comments from the Twin Cities’ officials, border czar Tom Homan said, “We’re going to enforce the law, without apology.”
Homan, in a Dec. 2 interview with Fox News, said Noem’s findings and the welfare-fraud crimes are making the Twin Cities a higher priority for ICE.
He didn’t say when increased enforcement operations might begin or how many agents might be sent there. Homan said he has told police in other sanctuary cities that it is their duty to make their communities safer and that communities do become safer after ICE removes criminal illegal immigrants and legal immigrants who commit deportable offenses. Homan said it was “shameful” for local law enforcement not to partner with ICE to achieve that common goal.
He urged uncooperative police to “stand aside” and allow ICE to operate. Otherwise, the Justice Department will show “zero tolerance” and will prosecute anyone who impedes ICE.
O'Hara, the police chief, said his officers stay out of immigration issues.
“We don’t provide information to federal immigration authorities; we don’t ask people about their immigration status,” he said at the news conference.
Those actions align with a city ordinance that forbids city employees from asking people about their citizenship or immigration status. The local law also prohibits city workers from using “any knowledge of [a resident’s] status to enforce immigration laws,” the Minneapolis government website states.
Within days, Minneapolis officers will be receiving updated guidance for handling immigration-related matters, the police chief said, incorporating “feedback from community and community-based organizations.”
