Dec. 2 marked a point of no return for Minnesotans.

At a cabinet meeting at the White House, President Donald Trump disparaged the state’s Somali community, saying he did not want them in the United States. He said they contributed nothing to the country and referred to them as garbage.

The same day, reports emerged that 100 Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents were being deployed to the state to target Somali immigrants. Raids have been rampant across the Twin Cities since, with immigrants and citizens alike caught in the crossfire. 

For members of the Somali community, it has been a difficult several weeks, with students left to adjust to a rapidly changing situation.

Despite the warning signs of imminent immigration enforcement operations in the Twin Cities, President of the University of Minnesota’s Somali Student Association Dahir Munye said it was still hard to believe. 

“We heard the talks coming a couple weeks ago, but now to really see things in effect is almost shocking,” Munye said.

The Trump administration’s sudden escalation against Somalis has made Munye’s position on SSA all the more important. A student group with no political affiliations, the organization was thrust overnight into a position of guidance for the University’s Somali community.

“A lot of people are reaching out to us, wanting our perspective on things,” Munye said. “It’s really been a lot.”

It is also unclear exactly who is being targeted. Despite the Trump administration’s stated goal of removing undocumented immigrants from the country, the majority of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, and even more are permanent residents. 

That has left many American citizens of Somali descent in the Twin Cities fearful for their safety. According to Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, that is the point.

“The majority of people who are concerned are U.S. citizens, because that’s the majority [of the population],” Hussein said. “To target a community, call them garbage and then to send the police after them with a mission they cannot be successful at — because the majority of the people are citizens — tells you that this is a targeted attack against the black community.”

The fears are not unfounded. On Tuesday, a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood was physically restrained and arrested by ICE agents despite offering to show identification, and was only released after being taken to ICE offices in Fort Snelling. 

He was then told to walk home, a nearly two and a half hour walk in the cold. 

For Hussein, situations like these mean Somali residents need to take new, unprecedented steps to protect themselves.

“People are now worried if they should carry their passports around, and we are recommending to have those documents handy,” Hussein said. “You should not live in the United States walking around with your passport, but that’s where America is.”

ICE on the streets

The morning of Wednesday, Dec. 10, began unassumingly for Mahamed, a resident of Cedar-Riverside.

It snowed the night before, so he grabbed a shovel and began digging out his car. There was no indication it would be anything other than a typical winter morning in Minneapolis until, minutes later, he looked up to find himself surrounded by eight federal agents.

“I didn’t even know if it was ICE,” Mahamed, who wished not to use his last name for fear of retaliation, said. “I just saw some cars driving by. I was looking down ‘cause I’m trying to get the snow out of the way of my car, and when I looked up, they’d already surrounded me.”

Agents approached Mahamed and asked him to present identification. They refused to identify themselves and had arrived in unmarked vehicles. 

Alone with his mother nearby, Mahamed was afraid of what might happen.

“It was actually quite terrifying,” he said. “I was very intimidated.”

Adding to his fears was a man with the agents, using a phone on an extended mount to film Mahamed. Mahamed said he was uncomfortable providing identification while being filmed by someone who was clearly not law enforcement.  

“It felt like a reality show,” he said.

That man was Ben Bergquam, an influencer from right-wing television network Real America’s Voice. Bergquam’s role in the operations is unclear, and neither Bergquam nor Real America’s Voice responded to the Minnesota Daily’s request for comment.

Agents proceeded to ask Mahamed questions about where he was born and whether he was a citizen, accusing him of making things difficult when he refused to show identification. When Mahamed continued to refuse, agents threatened to detain him.

“They basically threatened me and said, ‘Hey, we either figure this out in 7 minutes, or we hold you for 72 hours,’” he said.

Agents questioned Mahamed’s mother as well, who is also a U.S. citizen, and prevented Mahamed from approaching her when she began crying. He said agents criticized him when he spoke Somali to his mother and asked why he was using a foreign language. 

Mahamed believed the agents first approached him because his mother wears a niqab, a face covering often worn by Muslim women. He also said he felt agents were trying to intimidate him to present identification, which he had no legal obligation to do. 

“I was very much willing to be detained, because I’m a U.S. citizen and I was born in this country,” he said.

Agents showed no signs of leaving until community members began arriving to confront officers, according to Mahamed.

Community members on foot and bike recorded the interaction and blew whistles to alert other bystanders of ICE’s presence. Agents left shortly thereafter without detaining Mahamed or his mother.

Mahamed said the community response provided a sense of reassurance during an otherwise scary experience.

“That’s what made me feel a lot better, when the community was there, and everybody was witnessing it,” he said. “Because the community was there, there’s lots of people recording it, they [the agents] became a lot more wary and careful with what they were doing.”

Shortly after leaving Mahamed and his mother, agents made their way to Riverside Plaza, where they were, again, confronted by community members. 

Federal agents gained access to a residential apartment complex in the plaza, according to eyewitnesses, but did not detain any individuals. Bergquam was once again present with agents during the operation, and video taken by the Daily showed him arguing with community members as agents returned to their vehicles. 

Another video captured by the Daily showed a federal agent pepper-spraying bystanders out of the passenger side window as agents drove off. Bystanders stood on the sidewalk or side of the road and were not obstructing the agents’ vehicle.

Minutes after agents had departed, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey arrived at a nearby cafe to grab some coffee. Stumbling onto an ICE raid was not on the agenda, Frey said.

“Initially, we were out here to get some coffee as the day is starting and obviously show support to our Somali community,” Frey said. “On our way over, we heard yet another one [raid] had taken place.”

Minneapolis has long been a target of the Trump administration’s anger, owing to the city’s sanctuary city ordinance. Frey and Trump have exchanged verbal jabs in recent weeks, with Trump calling Frey a fool.

On Wednesday, Frey doubled down on Minneapolis’s sanctuary city status.

“We won’t cooperate with them in any way, shape or form, and we’re doing everything possible to work with our community members, including those who are here right now,” Frey said. 

While agents departed Riverside Plaza, ICE raids across the city continued. Community members continued showing up as well, documenting agents’ actions and blowing whistles, just as they had been doing since raids began. 

The community’s relentless pursuit is not a coincidence. Across the Twin Cities, individuals and organizations have been preparing for this moment. 

The community responds

On the morning of Dec. 5 at the corner of East Lake Street and Stevens Avenue, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee organizer Alvin was keeping watch. The corner had been a hotspot of ICE activity in recent days, and Alvin was ready to send out the alert if he saw more. 

Alvin, who preferred not to use his last name for fear of retaliation, is no stranger to ICE raids. He was present at previous ICE operations in St. Paul and was even shot at with pepper balls by agents. 

But what has been happening in the Twin Cities over the past several weeks has proven to be a new challenge, he said.

“These are operations where ICE comes by and tries to pick up just one or two folks off the street,” Alvin said. “Those operations are really hard to stop because once the observers get notice of it and try to go to the location, oftentimes ICE has already left.”

These targeted raids have been occurring throughout the cities, leaving organizers and concerned citizens like Alvin scrambling to keep up. The shorter duration and more isolated nature of these raids mean that community members can no longer afford to wait to receive news of operations.

“We are now trying to be more proactive,” he said. “It’s very hard to get notice and then go out to the situation, so we’re being more proactive by stationing MIRAC members at particular hotspots across the city so they can observe and be immediately ready to act should something happen.”

The increase in observers is not reserved for MIRAC or even community organizations.

Up the street at Karmel Mall, Miri Villerius was stationed on the corner of West Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue, keeping watch. They had been there since 4:45 a.m., looking for ICE. 

They were representing no organization or community group, only themself. 

A popular destination for South Minneapolis’ Somali population, Karmel Mall was a likely target for federal agents, and not only for Somalis. The day before, Villerius responded to an attempted detention of a Hispanic man, who was ultimately let go.

Villerius is not alone in their efforts, both at Karmel Mall and throughout the cities. A series of Signal chats has emerged for individuals like him to share information about ICE activity and mobilize community members to the scene. 

With these networks, individuals have taken to the streets in high-risk areas to keep watch for ICE agents and spread information they capture of their activity. When ICE operations are confirmed, community responders may be called for support, as was the case at Riverside Plaza.

There are other organization-led response networks as well. MIRAC, the Immigrant Defense Network, Unidos and Monarca all have their own response networks to mobilize responders to ICE operations.

As raids continue throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, this response continues to be tested.

Making sense of the chaos

At the University, the SSA has been left to pick up the pieces of a difficult situation. As president, that responsibility has fallen heavily on Munye.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” he said.

Munye said the organization took its time releasing a statement on the ICE raids, wanting to ensure it was doing its best to provide accurate information and helpful resources for the community. Being in a position of suddenly having to educate the community on how to protect themselves was not something they had anticipated.

“We’re not a political group or anything like that, we’re just a bunch of students,” Munye said.

“That means that us, as board members, we have to find the answers for ourselves.”

Given the close relationship between the University and the surrounding community, students are on high alert. What happens outside the University boundaries can easily make an impact inside as well, something Jaylani Hussein understands in his role at CAIR.

“They [students] are worried about their family,” Hussein said. “Their parents might have different statuses and they were born here, so that’s important.”

For Munye, the attacks against the Somali community have been difficult and certainly unfair. He says the hateful rhetoric and actions they have been facing are not a reflection of the truth.

“All the immigrants he’s targeting, we escaped war; there’s a bunch of doctors and business owners in my community,” Munye said. “These are really people who strive to do good for their community.”

Munye believes they will once again prevail here.

“We’re taking a lot of wounds,” he said. “But I know my community, and I know there’s nothing we can’t come back from.”