President Donald Trump zoomed in on Minnesota’s Somali community during his Tuesday night State of the Union address, calling them “pirates” who have “ransacked Minnesota” and cited an unproven claim that members have carried out $19 billion in fraud.
“When it comes to the corruption that is ... plundering America, there has been no more stunning example than Minnesota — where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion dollars from the American taxpayer," Trump said.
Prosecutors say stolen funds, which they say was the result of decades of poor oversight, could total $9 billion, though the Minnesota Star Tribune has found that alleged fraud uncovered so far in some state programs is closer to $200 million.
Trump also called Somali Minnesotans “pirates who ransacked Minnesota” and who reminded the country that “there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception.”
Trump also brought up the issue of illegal immigration several times during his speech. At one point he said, “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
All but one of Minnesota’s six congressional Democrats attended Trump’s State of the Union. All four of Minnesota’s congressional Republicans attended. Omar, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Reps. Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison and Betty McCollum remained seated for most of Trump’s speech as Republicans stood up to cheer on his remarks. Sen. Tina Smith did not attend and instead spoke at a counter-rally on the National Mall.
Trump’s State of the Union comes just over a week since the administration announced an end to Operation Metro Surge, which federal authorities said began in response to the fraud crisis in the state.
While the president’s speech did not specifically call out the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, in the Democratic rebuttal to his address Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger more directly referenced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s surge in the state.
“Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans and they have done it without a warrant,” Spanberger said. “They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat … to far-off detention centers and they have killed American citizens in our streets. And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability.”
Spanberger was referencing Columbia Heights preschooler Liam Conejo Ramos who was taken into custody with his father in January by federal agents and sent to a Texas detention center before being released.
