Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the United States, a community that has recently been the target of harsh criticism from former President Donald Trump. In early December 2025, Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said he wanted to send them “back to where they came from,” and he later said they had “destroyed our country.” These remarks followed his threat days earlier to end temporary legal protections for Somali migrants in Minnesota.
Conservative critics have also highlighted criminal investigations and news reports of alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services system — incidents in which some Somalis have been implicated — using them to denigrate the whole community. At the same time, federal authorities are reportedly preparing an immigration enforcement operation focused on Minnesota’s Somali population.
Nearly 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota today, about 78% concentrated in the Twin Cities, according to Wilder Research. But the state’s Somali community didn’t begin in Minneapolis–St. Paul. In the late 1990s some of the first Somali refugees to arrive in the U.S. settled in Marshall, a town roughly 150 miles west of Minneapolis, author Ahmed Ismail Yusuf writes in his book Somalis in Minnesota. Fleeing civil war in Somalia, many refugees took jobs at a Marshall meat-packing plant; as word spread, others followed and found work in hospitality, taxi driving and other industries, eventually building sizable communities in and around the Twin Cities.
Yusuf says those early hires brought their families, which helped the community grow. He and others note that Minnesota’s reputation for martisoor — a Somali word for hospitality — drew newcomers. The state’s liberal social norms felt familiar to many Somali immigrants.
The transition hasn’t been seamless. Some religious Somalis have encountered difficulties practicing Islam in Minnesota, including praying multiple times a day and Muslim women wearing the hijab. The community has also had to contend with stigma after some Somalis became targets for ISIS recruitment more than a decade ago, an association that has complicated public perceptions.
Despite those challenges, the Somali population in Minnesota has continued to expand and to contribute to the state. “Wherever you go, still we’re serving the people, we are serving the community, we are serving the state,” Yusuf said.
A notable figure from the community is Rep. Ilhan Omar, who came to the U.S. as a refugee and in 2018 became the first Somali American elected to Congress. Trump has repeatedly attacked Omar, saying she “shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman” and suggesting she be expelled from the country; she has responded publicly to his comments.
Yusuf describes the Somali community as feeling “a bit under siege” amid the Trump administration’s actions, but he also notes support from Twin Cities leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. “We are dealing with this,” he said, “but we are not dealing with it alone.”