After a New York Times report said more than 100 federal immigration agents are poised to enter Minnesota, Eden Prairie Police Chief Matt Sackett said the department has not been notified of any planned raids but has discussed how officers would respond if agents come to the city.
The report came as President Donald Trump intensified attacks on Minnesota’s Somali community in recent days, including comments on Tuesday in which he called Somalis “garbage” and said “we don’t want them in our country.”
Eden Prairie has the third-largest Somali population in Minnesota, according to a University of Minnesota study.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter held a press conference on Tuesday to address both the New York Times report and Trump’s remarks. The mayors said they have not been told of any imminent raids but emphasized that they would support Somali residents and would not participate in federal immigration enforcement.
Sackett said Eden Prairie has not received any information about potential raids in the Twin Cities and only has the same information that was shared at the mayors’ press conference. He said Eden Prairie officers have discussed internally how they would handle ICE’s presence if agents arrive in the city.
Mayor Ron Case said the Eden Prairie Police Department (EPPD) will not stop federal immigration operations; however, officers also cannot assist with them because immigration enforcement is outside local jurisdiction.
“(ICE) is a police agency of the United States government, and we are not in any way going to thwart that,” Case said. “That said, (federal immigration officers) are carrying out federal policy that we are not authorized to carry out.”
Anti-immigration rhetoric was a major part of Trump’s campaign and has continued into his presidency. Masked immigration agents have instilled fear in immigrant communities across the country and in cities he has targeted.
Last month, Trump said he was immediately terminating temporary deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota, saying “Somali gangs” terrorized the state without providing evidence. Government records show 705 Somalis in the United States have Temporary Protected Status.
The vast majority of Somalis in Minnesota — about 80,000 people — are American citizens, Frey said.
Trump’s attacks on Somalis in America have increased since last week’s shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., that killed one of the soldiers and for which an Afghan national was charged.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, did not confirm whether raids were imminent in Minneapolis, but said agents were enforcing immigration laws across the country every day.
Trump has used inflammatory language when discussing immigration throughout both his presidential terms. On several occasions he said that immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Carter referenced the opening words to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution — “We the People” — during the Minneapolis press conference.
“The sacred moments in American history are the moments we’ve had to decide who the ‘we’ is, who is included,” Carter said. “Who (Trump) is attacking aren’t just Somalis — they are Somali-Americans. Who he attacked is Americans.”
Editor’s note: This story includes reporting from Reuters.
