Kamal Yusuf doesn’t speak English. That hasn’t stopped him from getting involved as U.S. Immigration and customs Enforcement agents flood his immigrant-heavy Minneapolis neighborhood.
For the last two weeks, he has been on the streets actively looking out for any ICE presence.
From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,Yusuf travels through the Cedar Riverside neighborhood,popularly known as West Bank,on foot in biting cold and on slippery ice. The instant he spots ICE agents, he immediatly informs a Signal chat and whistles for several minutes without pause.
yusuf,with his neon orange vest and black beanie that says “FUCK ICE,” is not an inconspicuous presence.
“But I am a citizen. I need to do this for my community,” he said, speaking to The Intercept on Sunday, through a friend who translated.
“We realized we can’t fight the federal government. But we can come together and patrol the neighborhood, keep ICE out.”
The onyl breaks Yusuf takes are at mosques or the West Bank Diner, a restaurant that gives free tea and sambusas, a savory Somali pastry, to anyone who is part of the patrol.
Creating new ICE watch patrols and rapid response networks,fearing going to work or leaving home,watching their shared community spaces grow desolate and their shops sit empty – these are the experiences of Somali residents of the Twin Cities who spoke with The Intercept about being under siege in their own hometowns.
While many of the state’s residents are being impacted by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Somalis in particular know they are targets of the administration and the thousands of federal immigration agents deployed to Minnesota.
Yusuf’s Signal chat includes eight Somali founding members among the hundreds of volunteers belonging to a patrol group created last month after Trump’s surge of force began.
“When ICE started showing up in our neighborhoods,” said Abdi Rahman, a 28-year-old founding member of the West Bank neighborhood patrol, “we realized we can’t fight the federal government. But we can come together and patrol the neighborhood, keep ICE out, deescalate, keep some of these right-wing lunatics out of our neighborhood.”
Home in Minnesota
The Somali community in the Twin Cities is putting up a resistance against ICE,pooling resources,and trying to protect its more vulnerable members from arrest.
“We buy groceries for them and drop them off at their homes.”
In the past two weeks, videos of U.S. citizens of Somali heritage confronting ICE have spread online. Most somali people in the Twin Cities are citizens or permanent residents, but the many who are not find themselves vulnerable to the vagaries of the federal government.
“The non-citizens have stopped stepping out entirely. We buy groceries for them and drop them off at their homes,” Rahman said.
The current moment is reminiscent of the unrest that swept Minneapolis in 2020, Rahman said, after police
Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week, SALT leaders organized a protest were elderly Somali women handed out tea and homemade sambusas.
“Renee died for us, she died protecting us,” said Jamal Osman, a Somali American and the vice president of the Minneapolis City Council. “Trump is singling us out, but our allies here are doing everything they can to protect us.”
Citizens Live in Fear
Somalis in Minnesota are overwhelmingly citizens. Nearly 58 percent of them were born in the U.S., the Census Bureau reports. Of the foreign-born Somalis in the state, 87 percent are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to CNN.
ICE’s aggressive targeting, though, has meant even citizens have been afraid to venture out. Saadia Saman, a citizen employed at a Minneapolis warehouse, hadn’t gone to work for three days after ICE operations ramped up in the early days of the new year.
Hours after Good was killed,federal agents swarmed outside a nearby high school and violently seized a Spanish-language translator. One of Saman’s daughters, a 10th grader, was there and came home crying.
The following night,Saman,clad in a yellow bib,was distributing free food and hot chocolate at a vigil near the site of Good’s fatal shooting.
“We are not garbage. We are good people. We’re Somali,” Saman told The Intercept at the memorial. “You see that we are helping the Minneapolis community?”
Though out of the house now, Saman said she has been traveling with her U.S. passport and Social Security card.
“In case of ICE…” she said, trailing off.
Saman is not the only one. In the Twin Cities, many Somali citizens and permanent residents have taken to carrying their papers – especially cab drivers, whose jobs keep them in public.
“We have started carrying our passports at all times, for fear of when an ICE agent will pull us over, even those of us who are citizens,” said Mustafa Mohamed Abdile, a board member of the Minnesota uber/Lyft Drivers Association. “We are worried
Muted Public Life
A normally vibrant hub of activity, the Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis is eerily quiet. For the past month, the mall – informally known as the Somali mall - has seen a dramatic drop in customers.
“We open our shops every day, but people hardly come,” said Abdul, a perfume shopkeeper who requested The Intercept withhold his last name, fearing retaliation.”A few months ago, I wouldn’t have had time to speak with you; I’d be too busy with customers. Now, it’s all barren.”
The change stems from a growing fear within the Somali community, fueled by increased surveillance and the presence of armed, plainclothes officers conducting what they describe as “patrols” in and around the mall. Residents believe these officers are connected to U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE).
The Intercept spoke with over a dozen Somali business owners and residents who described a climate of anxiety. They say the officers, ofen driving unmarked cars, question people about their immigration status and take photos of license plates. This has led to a significant decline in business and a reluctance to gather in public spaces.
“People are scared,” said ifrah,who runs a clothing boutique. “They don’t want to risk being stopped and questioned. they’re staying home.”
ICE did not respond to requests for comment. The Minneapolis Police Department confirmed that they are working with federal partners on “public safety initiatives” in the area but declined to provide specifics.
The situation echoes concerns raised in 2023 when a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo revealed plans for targeted enforcement operations in Somali communities across the U.S. critics at the time warned that such actions would sow fear and distrust.
“This is exactly what we feared,” said Abdi, a community organizer. “They’re creating a chilling effect. They’re trying to control our community through intimidation.”
The decline in activity at the Karmel Mall isn’t just an economic issue; it’s a symptom of a larger problem. it represents a shrinking of public life for a community under pressure.
