When a president of the United States calls an entire community “garbage,” the harm is not symbolic—it is real. It ripples through neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and families. It emboldens hate. And it puts lives at risk.

This week, President Donald Trump unleashed a dehumanizing and xenophobic rant against Somali immigrants and Somali Americans, calling them “killers,” “leeches,” and “garbage,” and telling them to “go back” to a country many haven’t seen since childhood—if ever.

He singled out Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born American citizen, with the same language.

At the same time, credible reporting shows the administration is deploying strike teams of ICE agents to conduct targeted deportation operations across the Minneapolis–St. Paul area—home to the nation’s largest Somali population. Most Somali Minnesotans are U.S. citizens or lawful residents. Yet city leaders fear that, under rhetoric like this, even American citizens could be wrongfully detained simply for “looking Somali.”

This is a line we cannot allow our country to cross.

We call on members of Congress, governors, mayors, and national civic leaders to:

• Publicly condemn Trump’s dehumanizing language against Somali Americans
• Affirm the dignity, safety, and belonging of Somali communities across the U.S.
• Demand oversight of DHS operations to prevent racial profiling, unlawful detentions, or civil rights violations
• Commit to protecting immigrant communities from hate-driven policies and rhetoric.

Somali Americans are our neighbors, our teachers, our health workers, our small business owners, our veterans, our voters. They are part of the fabric of Minnesota—and of America.

Dehumanizing language has no place in public life. It endangers communities, undermines civil rights, and encourages violence. Silence from civic leaders only normalizes this behavior.

Sign to demand that our elected officials stand up, speak out, and defend Somali Americans from hate.

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