Trump targets Somali community amid immigration crackdown
United States President Donald Trump is doubling down on his intention to freeze immigration from poorer nations.
The Trump administration has been blaming immigrants for problems including crime and housing shortages.
The Somali community is one of the president’s latest targets. Speaking from Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said the US did not want immigrants "from different countries that are not friendly to us and countries that are out of control themselves, countries like Somalia."
Trump has recently escalated his attacks on Somali immigrants. He said he would terminate Temporary Protected Status for Minnesota’s Somali residents. The state has the largest Somali community in the country.
In his Thanksgiving message on Truth Social, Trump reiterated his claims that "hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota."
He accused "Somalian gangs" of roaming the streets and berated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Representative Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia.
Trump's attacks come amid a wider crackdown on legal immigration. The US president has vowed to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status, in a so-called “reverse migration.”
His declarations came after an Afghan national was arrested for the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington last week.
Trump has since said he would "permanently pause"migration from all "Third World Countries."
The US State Department has also halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports.
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