The Somali Immigration Crackdown Was Bogus From the Start

Amid the shifting tone of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota, it’s worth recalling that the original aim in early December was supposedly to deport people from Somalia. This should have been a pretty clear signal that sending thousands of federal agents to the state wasn’t truly about stopping illegal immigration, given how few unauthorized Somali immigrants are in Minnesota or anywhere else in the US.

According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there were 76,320 people of Somali ancestry in Minnesota in 2024 and 193,061 nationwide. Both these numbers are misleadingly precise, with the Minnesota estimate subject to a margin of error of plus or minus 12,542, so for the chart below I’ve used three-year averages, which show more than 90% of Minnesota residents of Somali ancestry to be US citizens, most by birth. Of the noncitizens, immigration records (shown in another chart further down) indicate that almost all are probably either legal permanent residents or refugees, who are eligible for legal permanent status after a year in the country.