The newest phase of militarized racial terror in Donald Trump’s America is playing out on the streets of Minnesota.
Masked and armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are stopping people of color and demanding identification. As media reports have documented, they have seized U.S. citizens. When concerned bystanders have tried to intervene, they have been met with pepper spray and threats. Terrified families do not know where their loved ones have been taken, by whom or why.
Operation “Metro Surge” shows how far ICE is willing to go to terrorize the Black, Brown and immigrant communities of Minnesota. It is cruelty masquerading as policy.
This is not a scene from the darkest chapters of American history. It’s Minnesota in 2025. Though for many immigrant communities, such persecution might sound painfully familiar. Japanese Americans endured it during World War II. Muslim Americans lived through it after Sept. 11, 2001. Jewish immigrants felt it decades ago when the U.S. closed its borders to refugees fleeing genocide.
Earlier periods in U.S. history were also harsh, with Italian immigrants derided as criminals and Irish immigrants branded job stealers. Last year, Trump hurled unconscionable stereotypes and false claims about Haitian immigrants, epithets designed to demonize a nationality.
The details change yet the pattern remains the same: Weaponize fear and target entire communities. Trump is widening the net when he slurs Somalis as “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.” Although he has criticized me as “garbage” and denigrated others of Somali heritage, the ultimate goal is to cast suspicion on anyone who looks like they might be an immigrant. Today in Trump’s America, that means anyone who is not white.
The purpose of Trump’s immigration agenda: to make Black and Brown Americans, permanent residents, documented workers, international students, tourists and refugees all feel like they do not belong here, regardless of what the law says.
Any pretense of legitimate law enforcement evaporated the moment the Trump administration rushed to strip Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole from thousands of people, rendering them undocumented so federal agents could arrest and detain them. The government has unilaterally halted asylum processing, abandoning people fleeing persecution. The president stopped renewing work permits and parole for people born in what he has repeatedly demeaned as “garbage” and “shithole” countries.
Operation “Metro Surge” is showing how far ICE is willing to go to terrorize the Black, Brown and immigrant communities of Minnesota. It is cruelty masquerading as policy.
Over the past week, ICE agents attacked a Somali man on his lunch break even as customers shouted that he was a U.S. citizen. Agents ignored them. They hauled him to a federal facility, then told him to walk home through snow after admitting they had no cause to detain him.
Another egregious example was the abduction of a Somali woman from downtown Minneapolis who was mocked for wearing a hijab and held for 24 hours until her family proved, yet again, that a U.S. passport is not enough to shield a U.S. citizen who happens to be a Black Muslim woman.
This is not “immigration enforcement.” It is collective punishment. It is state-sanctioned racial profiling used as a tool of political intimidation.
Immigrants and communities of color are not the only people suffering the consequences. White neighbors who understand that the Constitution protects everyone, who simply attempt to lawfully observe events, are being brutalized as well. One 55-year-old white Minnesotan stepped outside to see why armed agents had swarmed her block. She was shoved to the ground, arrested, shackled and held for four hours before being released without charge. The message is unmistakable: Dissent will be punished. Fear and cruelty are the point. Here is what Trump and his enablers fail to understand: Immigrants love this country deeply. We love democracy in the way that only those who have lived without it can. Here is what Trump and his enablers fail to understand: Immigrants love this country deeply. We love democracy in the way that only those who have lived without it can. We cherish the rule of law, the promise of due process and the idea that our diversity is a strength, not a threat. My grandfather understood this. He brought me to Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucuses as a teenager because he knew that U.S. citizenship carries a profound responsibility: to participate, to protect our neighbors and to build communities where every person can thrive. He instilled in me the fact that America is strongest when we stand up for one another. No matter how hard this president tries to weaponize fear, he cannot extinguish our love for this country. He cannot crush the American dream we have fought to claim. And he cannot erase the contributions and courage of millions who believe in an America that is multiracial, democratic and free. Somali Minnesotans will not be intimidated into silence. Trump will never be able to steal the American dream from us because so many of us have fought like hell to have a chance at it. We will not surrender the beautiful promise of a nation that belongs to all of us.
Rep. Ilhan Omar
Rep. Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
