ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Somali man arrested by Trump agents over the weekend was no murderer or gang member or even violent, according to a Somali community leader, Said Hussain, executive director of the Rochester Somali Community Center, described man as “a normal person working and going to the community center and stuff like that.” Speaking in a Minnesota Public Radio interview, Hussain didn’t identify the man by name, deferring to fear among the man’s friends and associates that they too might be targeted next. It was on Sunday that the man was plucked from the street by ICE agents. Hussain said the agents followed the man from home to a nearby restaurant and detained him as he was getting out of his car. Hussain:
“He hasn’t broken the law — you know — been arrested. We always see him at the mosque. I always see him at the restaurants.”
Hussain said the man told him a couple weeksbefire that he had applied for asylum but was denied. However, as an immigrant from Somalia, he has temporary protected status until March 2026. Hussain said the man has lived in Minnesota at least eight years and was working to renew his work visa, which had expired. Hussain said the man has a Minnesota driver’s license and previously worked at the Seneca Foods plant in Rochester. Hussain said he had warned the man to be careful because his visa was pending renewal.
Verbatim
Hussain: “I talked to him a couple of weeks ago when Trump was saying something about the Somali community, something like that he was going to dispatch the ICE to come to Minnesota, to grab everybody, whatever. I talked to him, and I said, ‘You need to stay low.’”
The Somali saga
The arrest was the latest in a series of raids aimed at frightening and demoralizing Minnesota Somalis. The racially profiled crackdown follows President Trump’s racist and divisive comments about Somalis. In broad sweep, he called them “garbage” and said he wants them all deported. An estimated 7,000 Somalis live in Rochester. They began immigrating as refugees 35 years ago to escape civil war, persecution and starvation. They were directed to Minnesota by Catholic and Lutheran relief organizations as a good and welcoming place tp start new lives. The immigration was federally sanctioned as good public policy until Trump.