Scorned by the president, Somalis in Minnesota are embraced by the state that took them in

People of Somali descent in Minnesota have endured a dizzying week.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump called them “garbage” and sent immigration enforcement agents into the state, which is home to the nation’s largest Somali diaspora. By Thursday, officials in the Department of Homeland Security were touting the arrest of a handful of Somali men, whom the agency called the “worst of the worst.” Throughout, hate mail poured into inboxes at mosques and advocacy groups.

And yet, the wave of vitriol during the Trump administration’s continued nationwide immigration crackdown has been met with an opposing wave of solidarity in Minnesota. State leaders have been quick to publicly embrace the community. And some of those emails flooding the inboxes of organizers were expressions of kindness.

“People (were) saying that Minnesota Somalis are as Minnesotan as tater-tot hotdish,” said Suleiman Adan, deputy executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, describing the tone and content of some of the emails comparing the community to the state’s beloved casserole. “Somalis are as Minnesota as the state fair. That is, you know, we belong.”

In the unfamiliar glare of the national spotlight, Minnesotans with roots from the East African country of Somalia have felt pulled in two directions: singled out by an American president who has called attention to a massive and still-unfolding case of pandemic-era fraud, but embraced by the state that offered them refuge from a vicious and bloody civil war decades ago