U.S. Citizens With Somali Roots Are Carrying Their Passports Amid Minnesota ICE Crackdown |
As dozens of agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged into Minnesota’s Twin Cities this week as part of a federal crackdown targeting the Somali diaspora, it struck fear in the hearts of community members.
It’s not just immigrants, however, worried over ICE’s presence. The rhetoric behind the operation — notably racist rants from Donald Trump about Somalis at large — prompted legal residents of Somali descent to reel from fear.
“I’ve had a number of people reach out to me who are actually U.S. citizens who are wondering if they can have their citizenship revoked for a traffic ticket, or asking how they can prove their citizenship,” said Linus Chan, the faculty director of the University of Minnesota Law School’s Detainee Rights Clinic. “People are worried about their family and friends and neighbors, but even citizens are worried for themselves.”
“This is absolutely a racist weaponization of ICE against an entire community.”
The operation, announced this week amid a rising tide of vitriol aimed at Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, isn’t likely to result in booming deportations from Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The Somali community is largely made up of American citizens and permanent residents.
“Ultimately this isn’t going to yield results in terms of numbers of arrests or removal of people,” said Ana Pottratz Acosta, who leads the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School. “This is absolutely a racist weaponization of ICE against an entire community.”
Though many Somali residents cannot be legally deported, some community members are at risk. In some cases, however, the number of potential immigrants with issues doesn’t accord with the scale of the crackdown.
Take temporary protected status, or TPS, which is bestowed on some refugees in the country. The ICE raids came on the heels of a decision by Trump last month to rescind TPS for Somali residents, effectively depriving them of legal status in the country. While previous moves to rescind TPS for refugee communities have affected hundreds of thousands of refugees from Haiti and Venezuela, the number of Somalis with TPS stood at just 705, according to a congressional report earlier this year. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said about 300 Somalis previously receiving protected status are living in Minnesota.
Still, things are........