US House member Ilhan Omar on Sunday defended the Somali community in her Minnesota congressional district, saying it was “completely disgusting” when Donald Trump recently referred to them as garbage.
“These are Americans that he is calling ‘garbage,’” Omar, a Somalia-born Democrat, said while responding to the president’s remarks on CBS’s Face the Nation. “I think it is also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric – and this level of dehumanizing – can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president.”
Those comments from Omar – who also spent some of her CBS interview discussing fraud cases involving Minnesota Somalis in recent years – served as replies to insults from Trump during a cabinet meeting. Beside calling them “garbage”, the president said Minnesota’s Somali community should be sent back to Somalia.
“Look at their nation,” Trump also said. “Look how bad their nation is. It’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other.
“Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country – billions and billions.”
The Trump administration restricted all immigration cases for Somalis already in the US, along with people from 18 other countries. Community members expected the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, where most Somalis in the state reside, to see increased immigration enforcement operations. And, as a consequence, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey recently signed an executive order prohibiting federal, state and local officials from using city-owned parking lots, ramps, garages and lots for immigration enforcement operations.
On Thursday, Omar penned an op-ed in the New York Times claiming that Trump was resorting to racist attacks because various campaign promises – including a better US economy – have been failing.
“While the president wastes his time attacking my community … the promises of economic prosperity he made in his run for president [in 2024] have not come to fruition,” Omar wrote in the Times. “The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry.”
Attention on Minnesota’s Somali community ramped up in recent weeks as the right wing has seized on fraud cases in the state. Dozens of Somali residents were convicted in a scheme that involved lying to the state to receive reimbursements for meal disbursements, medical care and other services. The investigations into the series of fraud schemes spanned years – one of the most significant cases had charges filed three years ago.
One of the cases revolves around an organization called Feeding Our Future, which partnered with state agencies to distribute meals to kids. Federal prosecutors alleged that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the organization submitted fake documents to trick government officials into thinking they served food to thousands of children. The group’s founder was convicted in March. US House Republicans have since launched an investigation aimed at how fraud cases were handled by Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor who was his party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election won by Trump.
Omar on Sunday said she was among the first members of Congress who called on the fraud in question to be investigated. She also said the fraud was “reprehensible”.
Furthermore, Omar denied Trump administration allegations that taxpayer money involved in fraud investigations in Minnesota was siphoned to a terrorist organization in Somalia.
The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said his department was investigating whether the taxpayer money was going to al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia. House Republicans have also echoed those claims.
“There are people who have been prosecuted and who have been sentenced,” Omar said. “If there was a linkage in that – the money that they had stolen going to terrorism – then that is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out and basically charging them with these charges.”
Bessent also said those involved in the fraud donated to Omar’s campaign. Omar said Sunday: “We sent that money back a couple years ago.”
