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AMY GOODMAN: As we go from New Orleans to Minneapolis, we turn to Minnesota, where more than a hundred federal immigration agents are conducting operations this week, as President Trump escalates his attacks on the Somali community in the state. The Trump administration halted green card and citizenship applications from Somalis and people from 18 other countries after last week’s fatal shooting of a National Guardsman near the White House. One of those guardsmen died; another is fighting for his life. That was when an Afghan man who once worked for the CIA shot two members of the Guard.
During a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump attacked the Somali community, making comments that were later widely condemned.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you, OK? Somebody will say, “Oh, that’s not politically correct.” I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks. And we don’t want them in our country. I could say that about other countries, too. I can say it about other countries, too. We don’t want them to hell. We’ve got to — we have to rebuild our country. You know, our country is at a tipping point. We could go bad. We’re at a tipping point. I don’t know if people mind me saying that, but I’m saying it. We could go one way or the other. And we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.
AMY GOODMAN: President Trump’s comments at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Congressmember Ilhan Omar, a Somali American, first refugee congressmember, called President Trump’s comments and his obsession with her, as she described it, “creepy,” said, “He needs help.”
Trump made similar remarks on Wednesday. On Thursday, Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called Trump’s racist tirades “dangerous.” He also noted the vast majority of Somalis who live in Minnesota are American citizens and legal permanent residents.
GOV. TIM WALZ: It appears very little is being done. They bring these folks in from Texas or somewhere like that. I’m sure they’re too cold to get out of their cars to harass people. But they’re doing it in New Orleans. It’s all about show. It’s not about — they demonize an entire group, potentially 60,000 people, based on racial profiling. There are only about 300 people with the protective status that were here.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Minneapolis by Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR — that’s the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jaylani Hussein. If you can start off by responding to President Trump’s comments, calling the Somali community “garbage” and singling out Ilhan Omar, calling her “garbage,” as he said that they should leave the country? You were born in Somalia. You came to the United States as a child. Can you talk about the danger this puts you in when the president of the United States talks about an entire community in this way?
JAYLANI HUSSEIN: Well, I think it’s extremely — thank you for having me.
I think it’s extremely disappointing. And especially, I think Americans across this country should be abhorred. And most importantly, you know, we understand why we’re being attacked. We believe it’s actually because of our success. Somali Americans have been in the United States now for more than 30 years. We came here partially because of our refugee status, and the doors were actually opened by George Bush Sr.
And, you know, the fact that this attack is happening to this community, and continues to happen, we believe, is because of the fact that we fill the three — trifecta. We are a Black immigrant, and we know that President Trump continues to attack Black people, whether they’re descendants of slaves here in the United States or African immigrants. We see the majority of the countries that have been banned are African. Also the fact of immigrants and, of course, being a Muslim. And I think those trifectas continue to make it easy to scapegoat.
We know that there are foreign entities that want — including Israel, as well as the Hindu extremists in this country, who want to reverse the course of what is actually taking place in this country, which is for the first time Republicans waking up to these wars, to these never-ending wars, and the carnage of what happened in Gaza. And so, we know that that’s an element as part of the reason why this community is being targeted. But here’s what I’ll tell you —
AMY GOODMAN: You’re saying because it’s a largely Muslim community, Jaylani?
JAYLANI HUSSEIN: Yes, absolutely. And I think that, you know, there is an effort to try to demonize Muslims. This has always been the case. If you demonize Muslims, then you can get away with killing Muslims abroad. This has always been the case, from the Afghanistan War to the Iraq War. We know that.
And I think many young Republicans and many, obviously, progressive Democrats and Democrats across this country, and perhaps the future of this country, do not want to have a government that spends majority of its time in wars of killing other people and not taking care of Americans here. I think that’s at the center of it.
However, you know, it’s been interesting to have these hundred-plus ICE agents descend on our state. And so far, what we’ve heard is, literally, them detaining U.S. citizens. I think that yesterday we learned that they maybe only picked up five Somali Americans who are going through the immigration process.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m wondering if you could also comment on what happened in November, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott declaring your organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, a foreign terrorist organization. It’s not even clear that he has the ability, as a governor of a state, to classify an organization in this way.
JAYLANI HUSSEIN: I think it’s the — I think it fits the same pattern of behavior that we have seen, where Israeli-first politicians are doing the bidding of Netanyahu. We know that CAIR has actually had a spy who had connections to the Netanyahu government, who infiltrated one of our CAIR chapters. We are the largest civil rights organization. It is because of the fact of how effective we are in ensuring the rights of American Muslims and others that we’ve become a target for these groups. And so, you know, it’s been widely condemned. And the reality is, is this is where they go. You know, this is kind of the targeting that we have seen, and we expect that. And perhaps there will be even more.
But it’s falling, I believe, on deaf ears, because more and more people are reading now, more and more people are awake, and there’s a younger generation of Americans I am really hopeful will not be duped by the same type of rhetoric that we have seen in the past.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you have the largest Somali American population in the United States in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul, around what? Eighy-four thousand people, with approximately three-quarters, 73%, of Somali immigrants being naturalized citizens. This is imperiling Republican candidates and political figures. I have seen people concerned about whether they will be elected. There are Somali Republicans and Democrats. I saw a father and business owner yesterday saying he voted for Trump. How does he talk to his children about him calling — Trump calling his children “garbage”? But if you can talk about the citizenship and President Trump threatening to take away, if this is even in his power, reexamine naturalized citizens?
JAYLANI HUSSEIN: Yeah, I mean, these threats have been there. It’s part of their plan. I know that we estimate about 58%, or a little more than that, of Somali Americans are actually born here. So we have a pretty young community. And about almost 80%, actually — we have some higher numbers of those who are either lawful residents or majority being U.S. citizens. We’ve been here for 30-plus years. We have built ourselves to be a fabric of this great state of Minnesota, not only in the urban core, but in greater parts of the state. And so, yeah, these efforts to try to do that is interesting, but it is part of this effort to try to, again, target immigration in this country. And I believe it’s not only racist, but it’s a plan that is to kind of respond to that kind of white nationalist effort that we have heard for so much.
To the other point, politically, you know, Somali Americans, just like any other community, are not monolithic. You know, we have seen actually a sharp increase of Somali Americans supporting Republicans in the state of Minnesota, including President Trump. And there are many of them. Some have publicly declared that they are out of the Republican Party, and others are asking hard questions.
And here’s the interesting thing: You know, the Republican leadership in the state of Minnesota understand what is happening. In fact, you know, they are kind of right now silent and not choosing to come up and say, you know, these — our community, the Somali American community, and many who even voted for them, are not garbage, and the president was out of line.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell your own story, Jaylani Hussein, how you came to the United States from Somalia?
JAYLANI HUSSEIN: You know, this is one thing that I think people don’t understand. You know, as an immigrant child or refugee child, nobody wants to leave home. I never, as a young child, ever imagined leaving anywhere. I remember living next to the airport, and I would see planes leaving. And, you know, as a child, you might have wanted to get on a plane and see things, but home is always home.
And because of that civil war — which I hope we get a chance sometime to talk about that, because people don’t realize how United States foreign policy plays into destabilization, including my own country, because Somalia was part of the Cold War, that the United States and Russia interfered with our own government and created us to have wars with our neighbors in Ethiopia.
But I left Somalia as a child, and I came here to Minnesota. And my father always says that, you know, we came to one of the coldest places, but we found people with warm hearts. And today, you know, I’m as Minnesotan as you can get.
And there’s something unique about Minnesota. Minnesota also has a large number of other immigrants, including folks from Laos, the Hmong population, and as well as a large other Latino and South American community. And it’s interesting. You know, it’s starting to be really unique. And for those who have visited us here in the state of Minnesota would find that, you know, robust diversity that is growing in the heart of the Twin Cities.
But Minnesota has not only embraced Somali community, but, you know, you start to see that our food and the things that we do are also part of the growth of the state. And so, you know, I was just joking to reporters that I was in a deer stand a couple of weeks ago, even though I didn’t get a deer. And that’s what it is. You know, when we come together and we live in this great country and try to make it even a better country, that is really the story of the immigrant community.
And that’s something that is not only hopeful, but in this moment, we are really asking, especially Minnesotans and folks across the country, to speak up. And I know and I’ve heard from Republicans, individuals. I’ve heard of so many people who are not only shocked and dismayed by what the president has said. And yesterday, we had faith leaders who spoke up. And many other community members are speaking up. And yesterday, we also called for a national day of action on Saturday, December 13, for folks to speak up across this country, to stand with Somali Americans, but also other immigrants in this country.
You know, this is a Native land. And other than the forced enslavement of African Americans, everyone else has really an immigrant story. And that’s the story we need to tell. And, you know, I hope this message goes to, you know, Melania. I know she is an immigrant herself. And I think she, in this moment, could potentially speak to the president and maybe even present a different story to the president.
Demonizing an entire community for the act of individuals is wrong. I also think, for many people who are asking these questions, you know, this is the oldest story, using crime to define a community. This is what media has done. They constantly lead with crime, and subjected without really giving it nuance. And that’s why today we have one of the largest mass incarceration of people of color, even though crime doesn’t have race or anything else.
So, this is a moment, I think, for our nation. We have seen vile things that the president has said, but in these moments, we need to come together and respond. But I also am asking for people to know, especially those on social media today who are projecting this hatred toward the Somali community — we believe some of those people are actually acting on behalf of foreign governments, and we need those individuals to be investigated, and if they are acting for a foreign government, they need to register in that manner.
AMY GOODMAN: Jaylani Hussein, I want to thank you so much for being with us, executive director of CAIR-Minnesota — that’s the Council of American-Islamic Relations — born in Somalia, came to the U.S. as a child.
As the U.S. blows up another boat, this one in the Pacific, and senators watch video of two September strike survivors clinging for life to a boat for more than 40 minutes, countering Secretary Hegseth’s claims of “fog of war,” we’ll speak with the lawyer for the family of another boat strike, this one a Colombian father of four. The family is challenging the strikes. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Wa Ana Amshi,” “As I Walk,” written by the Lebanese musical composer Marcel Khalife, performed here in New York at a Gaza benefit, NYC Palestinian Youth Choir this week.
