Federal authorities plan operation in Minnesota focusing on Somali immigrants, AP source says

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that would primarily focus on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the planning.

The move comes as President Donald Trump again on Tuesday escalated rhetoric about Minnesota's sizable Somali community, saying he did not want immigrants from the east African country in the U.S. because “they contribute nothing.”

The enforcement operation could begin in the coming days and is expected to focus on the Minneapolis–St. Paul area and people with final orders of deportation, the person said. Teams of immigration agents would spread across the Twin Cities in what the person described as a directed, high-priority sweep, though the plans remain subject to change.

The prospect of a crackdown is likely to deepen tensions in Minnesota — home to the nation’s largest Somali community. They've been coming since the 1990s, fleeing their country's long civil war and drawn by Minnesota's generous social programs.

An estimated 260,000 people of Somalian descent were living in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The largest population is in the Minneapolis area, home to about 84,000 residents, most of whom are American citizens. Ohio, Washington and California also have significant populations.

Trump has become increasingly focused on Somalians living in the U.S., saying they “have caused a lot of trouble.” Community leaders say Trump has inflamed tensions and revived fears of profiling.

The president said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Somali immigrants are too reliant on the U.S. social safety net and add little.

“I don’t want them in our country,” he said. “Their country is no good for a reason.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against Trump’s depiction of Somalis, saying it “violates the moral fabric of what we stand by in this country as Americans.”

“They have started businesses and created jobs. They have added to the cultural fabric of what Minneapolis is,” Frey said Tuesday.

The mayor vowed that the city’s police officers, many of whom are Somali, will not work with any federal agents doing immigration enforcement, saying “it’s not their job.”

“Targeting Somali people means that due process will be violated, mistakes will be made, and let’s be clear, it means that American citizens will be detained for no other reason than the fact that they look like they are Somali,” he said. “That is not now and will never be a legitimate reason.”

Hundreds of people are expected to be targeted in the operation, the person said. As with previous immigration operations, so-called incidental arrests are possible, meaning people who aren’t targeted but lack legal status could also be detained, the person said.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations that have not been publicly disclosed. The operation was first reported by The New York Times.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agency would not discuss “future or potential operations.”

“What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally,” McLaughlin said.

Trump and other officials in his administration have used increasingly harsh language in recent days against Somalis living in the U.S., after a conservative news outlet, City Journal, claimed that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs have flowed to the Somali militant group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida that holds parts of rural Somalia and often has targeted the capital, Mogadishu.

Last month, Trump said he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somali migrants in Minnesota, a legal safeguard against deportation for immigrants from certain countries. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.

Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that anyone committing fraud should go to prison, but he criticized the Trump administration’s actions.

“Sitting on the sidelines and throwing out accusations — and let’s be very clear, demonizing an entire population and lying to people about the safety and security of this state — is beneath that,” said the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Trump has claimed immigrants from Somalia were “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post Monday that his agency was investigating allegations that tax dollars may have been diverted Al-Shabaab.

Jaylani Hussein, a Somali American who is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group has heard of “less than a dozen” immigration arrests within the Somali community in recent days.

But Hussein said around 95% of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, so the numbers of those at earlier stages of the immigration process are a “pretty small” proportion of the community. He said they estimate that 50% of the community was born in the U.S.

“We believe this is political rhetoric and an attack against our community,” Hussein said. “But additional ICE agents means additional pressure on the wider immigrant community,” he said.

Hussein said the reported crackdown plan is yet another example of the Trump administration “demonizing the Muslim community.” And he said it’s not new that when somebody in the community commits a crime, the entire community will get accused. He said that’s been true of other ethnic groups through American history.

Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, who is Somali American, promised that the city will stand up for its immigrants.

“Our community has lived through fear in the past,” he said. “And we are not going to let us divide that."

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Associated Press journalists Rebecca Santana in Washington, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara speaks during a news conference addressing the media following reports that the Trump administration will be targeting Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities, at City Hall in Minneapolis, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman speaks during a news conference addressing the media following reports that the Trump administration will be targeting Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities, at City Hall in Minneapolis, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks during a news conference addressing the media following reports that the Trump administration will be targeting Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities, at City Hall in Minneapolis, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

FILE - Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey talks during a news conference after winning a third term in the city's ranked-choice voting election, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)