Minnesota now hosts the largest Somali population in the United States, but in recent months the community has been a focal point of harsh political attacks. In early December 2025, former President Donald Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage,” said he wanted to send some “back to where they came from,” and later charged that they had “destroyed our country.” Those comments came shortly after he threatened to end temporary legal protections for Somali migrants in the state. Reports also indicate federal authorities have been preparing an immigration enforcement operation that would concentrate on Minnesota’s Somali population.
Conservative commentators have seized on criminal probes and news accounts about alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services system—cases in which a number of Somalis have been implicated—to criticize and cast aspersions on the broader community.
Roughly 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota today, with about 78 percent located in the Twin Cities, according to Wilder Research. But the community’s roots in the state predate Minneapolis–St. Paul. As author Ahmed Ismail Yusuf chronicles in Somalis in Minnesota, some of the earliest Somali refugees who arrived in the late 1990s settled in Marshall, a small city about 150 miles west of Minneapolis. Many found work at a local meat‑packing plant; as word spread, others followed and took jobs in hospitality, taxi driving and related fields. Those early workers brought family members, and over time sizable Somali neighborhoods grew in and around the Twin Cities.
Yusuf and other community observers say Minnesota’s reputation for martisoor—a Somali term roughly meaning generous hospitality—helped draw newcomers. For many Somali arrivals, the state’s relatively open social norms felt familiar and welcoming.
The adaptation has not been without friction. Some religious Somalis have struggled to maintain practices such as daily prayers and for women to wear the hijab comfortably in public life. The community has also had to contend with stigma arising from instances, more than a decade ago, in which a small number of Somalis were recruited by ISIS; that association has complicated how some members of the public view the group.
Despite these challenges, Minnesota’s Somali population has expanded and contributed across many sectors. “Wherever you go, still we’re serving the people, we are serving the community, we are serving the state,” Yusuf says, describing ongoing community engagement.
A high‑profile Somali American figure is Representative Ilhan Omar, who arrived in the United States as a refugee and in 2018 became the first Somali American elected to Congress. She has been a repeated target of Trump’s public attacks, including his assertion that she “shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman” and his suggestions she be expelled; Omar has publicly rebutted those attacks.
Yusuf says members of the Somali community feel “a bit under siege” amid the recent federal rhetoric and actions, but he also points to local support from Twin Cities leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. “We are dealing with this,” he adds, “but we are not dealing with it alone.”