Trump calls Somali immigrants ‘garbage’ in harsh remarks, as enforcement operation looms

President Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered some of his most strident comments to date about Somali immigrants, calling them “garbage” who “contribute nothing” to the United States.

Vice President JD Vance, seated beside him, reportedly struck the table in apparent approval, according to CBC news.

“Their country stinks. They just run around killing each other. We don’t want them in our country,” Trump said during a White House news conference.

The remarks came as a person familiar with federal planning said authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that would largely focus on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the country.

Earlier in the day, the administration announced it had paused all immigration applications, including green card and citizenship petitions, from residents of 19 non-European countries, citing national security and public safety concerns.

The list includes Afghanistan and Somalia.

Roughly 260,000 people of Somali descent lived in the United States in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, with the largest concentration — about 84,000 residents — in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.

The vast majority are U.S. citizens.

Trump’s comments have prompted questions about why his administration is singling out immigrants from the war-torn East African nation and their American-born descendants, what has driven his rhetoric, and how communities and officials are responding.

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