Border Czar Defends Minnesota Crackdown, Vows Arrests of Undocumented Somalis

White House border enforcement chief Tom Homan on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's recent immigration comments and the administration's activities in Minnesota, saying authorities believe the state has a significant population of undocumented Somali residents. Homan denied that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stepped up deportation operations in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area in direct response to the president's remarks, and said officers are not targeting people based on appearance.

Homan's Defense and Enforcement Pledge

Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Homan said the administration remains focused on "public safety threats and national security threats." He reiterated a claim that there is "a large illegal Somali community" in Minnesota and vowed, without citing evidence, that "we're going to arrest every illegal alien that we find there." Homan also said he was "not aware" of what the president was thinking when he made his controversial comments about Somali immigrants.

"From day one, he has said we are concentrated on public safety threats and national security threats," Homan told CNN.

Community Reaction

Representative Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota lawmaker and a prominent member of the Somali-American community, sharply condemned the president's language. On CBS's Face the Nation she called the remarks "completely disgusting," saying they target Americans and reflect "an unhealthy obsession" with the Somali community and with her personally.

Local officials note that roughly 80,000 people of Somali origin live in Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities area, and that the overwhelming majority are U.S. citizens. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has emphasized that most Somalis in the state are naturalized or native-born Americans.

Context and Political Response

Many Somalis in the United States arrived as refugees fleeing decades of civil war in Somalia; more than 1 million people left the country beginning in 1991, and the U.S. began issuing visas to Somali refugees in 1992. Republicans who control Congress have generally either supported the administration's tougher immigration stance or avoided direct criticism.

Senator John Curtis, a Utah Republican, warned that a lack of transparency around ICE operations "brings this fear into a community" and called for efforts to reduce that fear and to make immigrants feel welcomed. Curtis urged policies that improve life for immigrants so that inflammatory comments by individuals matter less.

Note: Homan's claim about a large undocumented Somali population in Minnesota was reported without supporting evidence in his interview.