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Federal officers have encountered opposition in nearly all of the cities targeted by President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement campaign. But it was in Minnesota \u2014 a state in daily conflict with the Trump administration this year \u2014 that a 37-year-old woman was\u00a0shot and killed by an immigration officer.<\/p>\n
Trump has focused on several blue states in the divide-and-conquer campaign that has characterized his second term, and now he has turned to Minnesota, where\u00a0the killing of George Floyd\u00a0and the protests it sparked stained his first presidency.<\/p>\n
Trump last month\u00a0called the state\u2019s Somali population \u201cgarbage\u201d\u00a0in the wake of a massive federal investigation into COVID-19 and medical aid fraud tied to organizations serving Somali immigrants, among others. The fraud cases led Minnesota\u2019s Democratic governor, Tim Walz \u2014 former Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 2024 running mate \u2014 to announce this week he\u00a0will not run for reelection.<\/p>\n
In June, a\u00a0Democratic state lawmaker\u00a0and her husband were assassinated by a Trump supporter, although conservatives insist the gunman was actually a leftist working at Walz\u2019s behest. On Sunday, the victims\u2019 family begged Trump to take down a social media post echoing those conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
Amid that mounting tension, the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it was sending more than 2,000 federal officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in what it claimed would be the biggest immigration enforcement operation in history.<\/p>\n
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who killed Renee Good during a protest Wednesday against the immigration raids opened fire just blocks from where, in 2020, a Minneapolis police officer killed\u00a0George Floyd. The parallels were painful and frightening for many in the area, including Stephanie Abel, a 56-year-old Minneapolis nurse, who is keeping her gas tank full and cash handy in memory of the chaos that followed that slaying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the federal government would realize that now is not the time to be toying with people,\u201d Abel said. \u201cWhat are they going to try to do to get Minneapolis to ignite?\u201d<\/p>\n
Floyd\u2019s death sparked the biggest protests of Trump\u2019s first term. The president, who is still publicly bitter about the unrest, contends it should have been met with a stronger show of force.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the approach Trump has adopted in his second term, trying to cow blue states by surging military and immigration agents into their cities and insisting that anyone who doesn\u2019t comply with federal demands will face severe consequences.<\/p>\n
Immigration operations that started last summer in liberal strongholds such as\u00a0Chicago,Los Angeles\u00a0and\u00a0Portland\u00a0also generated large protests. Good is\u00a0at least the fifth person killed\u00a0during ICE enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said Good\u2019s death was \u201ca tragedy of her own making,\u201d blamed \u201cleftist ideology\u201d and said the media had encouraged protests against Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
The Twin Cities operation is intertwined with a conservative effort to make Minnesota the poster child for government fraud. Though prosecutions for the fraudulent use of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal COVID-19 and health aid by social service groups began in the Biden administration, Trump and conservatives have seized on the scandal in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
In November, Trump called Minnesota \u201ca hub of fraudulent money laundering activity\u201d after a report by a conservative news site, City Journal, claimed\u00a0federal money was fraudulently flowing\u00a0to the militant group al-Shabab. There has been little, if any, evidence, proving such a link. Nevertheless, the president said he would end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
The allegations got a new charge late last month when conservative influencer Nick Shirley posted an\u00a0unconfirmed video\u00a0claiming that day care centers in Minneapolis run by Somalis had fraudulently collected over $100 million in government aid.<\/p>\n
Jamal Osman, a Somali immigrant and Minneapolis city councilman who lives just a few blocks from the location of the ICE shooting, said he and other prominent Somalis in the area have been swamped with angry calls and messages since Trump made his statements. The vitriol, he said, mainly comes from out of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have whole groups of people who\u2019ve never been to Minnesota,\u201d Osman said in an interview. \u201cMinnesota is probably one of the nicest places to live. It\u2019s a beautiful area with very nice people and we blended in, it\u2019s all very nice. We don\u2019t really see bad things happening here normally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration on Tuesday said is\u00a0withholding funding\u00a0for programs that support needy families with children,\u00a0including day care\u00a0funding, in five Democratic-led states over concerns about fraud. Joining Minnesota on the list were California, Colorado, Illinois and New York.<\/p>\n
Minnesota\u2019s place on a list of targeted blue states is not unexpected.<\/p>\n
Under Walz, Minnesota has become something of a beacon for liberals as an example of a state that expanded the public safety net even as the nation swung to the right. Since Trump\u2019s first election, the state has seen large increases in education spending, free school breakfasts and lunches, and improved protection of abortion rights.<\/p>\n
Trump lost Minnesota by only 4 percentage points in 2024, making it significantly less liberal than California and New York. Still, it has been reliably Democratic throughout the Trump years, a rarity in the swingy upper Midwest.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s political tilt reflects the size of the Twin Cities metro area and its robust population of college-educated liberals, which overwhelm the state\u2019s more conservative rural reaches.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the sort of cleavage that has defined national politics during Trump\u2019s years in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinnesota is a microcosm of a lot of the tensions we have in our society,\u201d said David Schultz, a political scientist at Hamline University in St. Paul. \u201cWe\u2019re a country that\u2019s hugely polarized, Democrats-Republicans, urban-rural.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Minnesota was an ominous indicator of the damage those divisions can inflict. Minneapolis schools remained closed after immigration agents clashed with high school students at one campus on Wednesday. The state\u2019s National Guard remained on standby at Walz\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n
Walz begged Trump to ease up, saying Minnesota\u2019s residents are \u201cexhausted\u201d by the president\u2019s \u201crelentless assault on Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo please, just give us a break,\u201d Walz said during a news conference Thursday. \u201cAnd if it\u2019s me, you\u2019re already getting what you want, but leave my people alone. Leave our state alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press reporters Giovanna Dell\u2019Orto, Rebecca Santana and Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#George #Floyd #Trump #calling #Somali #immigrants #garbage #fatal #ICE #shooting #Minnesotas #crosshairs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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