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.
1 comment
nice news