When President Donald Trump was asked about how Afghans legally in the United States might feel about his decision to pause issuing visas for them after the suspected shooter of National Guard members was identified as an Afghan national, he took aim at another country in the same breath: Somalia.
“They can’t be happy because what’s taking place between that and, if you look at Somalia, they’re taking over Minnesota,” Trump said in remarks to reporters following his call to service members on Thanksgiving Day.
Moments later, he clarified the alleged shooter had nothing to do with Somalia. But the president has nonetheless continued pushing hostile rhetoric toward the Somali population in Minneapolis in the days since.
Over the past few months, the Trump administration has continued its sweeping deportation push of immigrants, with a surge of federal agents flooding the streets of blue cities such as Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Chicago; Charlotte and New Orleans, where the Department of Homeland Security confirmed a new operation Wednesday morning after weeks of anticipation that the Crescent City would be the next target.