Minnesota’s large Somali community is fearful after President Donald Trump intensified his criticism of the community in recent days and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched an operation in the region, members told Newsweek.

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump said of the community during a December 2 Cabinet meeting. “We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

“Somalians should be out of here,” he told reporters at a White House event the following day. “They’ve destroyed our country.”

Abdullahi Abdulle, an urban planner and veteran of the Minnesota Army National Guard, told Newsweek that many in the community have started carrying passports and legal documents eve

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