WASHINGTON — Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday defended ICE’s crackdown in Minnesota — where officials said up to half of Somali migrants have fraudulent immigration paperwork.
Homan contended that Minnesota, particularly Minneapolis, is rife with illegal immigrants and that lawful citizens “have nothing to fear” as ICE’s crackdown in the North Star State kicks into gear.
“There’s a large illegal Somali community there. There’s an illegal alien community there. If you’re a US citizen, you know, you have nothing to fear,” Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“…Because they’re [Minneapolis] a sanctuary city, we got to send more resources there to flood the zone. Because it takes a whole team to find somebody in the community.”
President Trump last week raged against the Somali community in Minnesota in response to revelations about a massive $1 billion aid fraud scandal, involving Somali many immigrants.
Minneapolis-St. Paul has the largest Somali population in the country. ICE announced last week that it apprehended over a dozen illegal immigrants during its operations there.
That crackdown came on the heels of Trump publicly raging against the Somali community in Minnesota after the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal that has roiled the state.
Fraudsters set up firms claiming to provide social services that they didn’t actually provide and instead pocketed taxpayer dollars, federal prosecutor said.
Dozens have been indicted, and the scandal has largely centered around the Somali immigrant population.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump seethed during a cabinet meeting last week. “Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.”
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller surmised that law enforcement has only “scratched the very top of the surface of how deep” the fraud scandal goes.
“We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history,” Miller told Fox News’ “Hannity” last week.
“And we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people.”
Homan waved off critics who downplayed the illegal immigrant population in Minnesota and stressed that the administration is prioritizing “public safety threats,” but will detain and deport all illegal immigrants that agents come across.
The hardline efforts to enforce immigration law have spurred harsh criticism from the left and even from some Republicans who have felt the approach is too aggressive.
CNN anchor Dana Bash played a clip of a US citizen who was nabbed by immigration officials before they discovered her driver’s license in her car.
“I can’t tell how you many times an illegal alien claimed to be a U.S. citizen. It happens all the time. But it’s getting back to what I just said, reasonable suspicion,” Homan explained.
“As soon as that questioning is over, if they’re a U.S. citizen, they will be released. It takes probable cause to arrest somebody and actually transport and take them into custody.”
