Somalis arrested in Minneapolis immigration operation, officials say
Signs prohibiting ICE agents from entering the property without a warrant hang on the doors of Karmel Mall, an East African shopping center, amid fears of a reported federal operation targeting Somali immigrants, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US December 4, 2025.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, has strongly criticised Trump’s attacks on the city's Somali population and on Thursday called on Americans to "love and respect" Minnesota's Somali immigrant community, which is the largest in North America.
People of Somali origin are among those arrested in an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, federal officials said on Thursday, two days after President Donald Trump hurled insults at immigrants from the Horn of Africa country and said he wanted them out of the United States.
The Minneapolis arrests began on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said in its first statement on the operation. Officials did not give a total arrest figure but gave profiles of 12 people apprehended, five of them from Somalia, the rest from Mexico and El Salvador.
