immigration crackdown

MINNEAPOLIS — Rows of businesses stood shuttered inside a sprawling complex of Somali businesses on a recent afternoon.

Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis contains more than 100 small businesses in suites offering clothing and food, insurance and accounting services, and much more.

One day last week, the noisy hallways inside lay quiet, save for occasional chatter between neighboring vendors. The smell of fried food still wafted from the bakeries, the central heating hummed, and the sound of Quran recitation flowed quietly from some shops.

But many sellers sat alone in their clothing stores, waiting for the occasional customer to walk by. Everyone is afraid of federal immigration agents, business owners said. Sellers and customers, citizens and noncitizens. Some don’t bother opening shop because they aren’t expecting any customers.

“It’s been like this for three weeks now,” said Abdi Wahid, who works at his mother’s convenience store in the mall. “Everywhere it’s all been closed up, all the stores.”

Karmel Mall is an economic hub for the area’s Somali population, the largest in the United States. It also features housing, a mosque and Quran classes, serving as a robust community center for the area.

The economic impact of the Trump administration’s so-called Operation Metro Surge stretches beyond the Somali community: Many immigrants are on edge, afraid to go to work or leave their homes amid the immigration crackdown.

President Trump has made the Somali community a special target of his deportation rhetoric after a recent government fraud case in Minnesota included some Somali defendants. Since December, Trump has repeatedly insulted members of the community, calling them “garbage” and saying “they contribute nothing.”

Wahid said early afternoons at the family business once meant 15 to 20 customers. These days, it’s tough to get one.

Wahid is a citizen, but he said the fear extends beyond undocumented immigrants. Citizens are also scared of coming in, especially after the ICE officer killing of Renee Nicole Good and the ICE raid at Roosevelt High School in south Minneapolis.

“I think that caused a lot of people to not even want to come,” he said, because they could be targeted “just because of their race.”

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that law enforcement uses “reasonable suspicion” under the 4th Amendment to make arrests.

“A person’s immigration status makes them a target for enforcement, not their skin color, race or ethnicity,” she said.

Upstairs, Bashir Garad runs Safari Travel & Accounting Services. Not only has the crackdown in Minneapolis meant he’s lost almost all his customers, but his clients are canceling upcoming trips because they’re worried they won’t be let back into the country.

“They see a lot of unlawful things going on in the city,” he said. “They look at something bad, and then they think some bad things may happen to them.” The majority of his clients are East African, and nearly all are U.S. citizens. They still hesitate to travel.

“The government is not doing the right thing,” Garad said. “If there’s a criminal, there’s a criminal. Regardless, there are ways to find the criminal, but to marginalize the community’s name, and a whole people, that is unlawful.”

Ibrahim Dahiye, who sells electronics, said winter always used to be slow, “but now it’s totally different. No one comes here. All the stores are closed, few are open.”

Since the crackdown began, Dahiye said his business is down $20,000 monthly, and he’s now pooling funds to make rent.

He said he’s lost most of his customers. His employees are too scared to come to work. He tapped his jacket pocket, saying he keeps his passport on him at all times.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Dahiye said. “We believe in Allah, but we can’t do anything.”

Raza writes for the Associated Press.

MINNEAPOLIS — The mayor of Minneapolis said Sunday that sending active-duty soldiers into Minnesota to help with an immigration crackdown is a ridiculous and unconstitutional idea as he urged protesters to remain peaceful so the president won’t see a need to send in the U.S. military.

Daily protests have been ongoing throughout January since the Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers.

In a diverse neighborhood where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been frequently seen, U.S. postal workers marched through on Sunday, chanting: “Protect our routes. Get ICE out.”

The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers based in Alaska who specialize in operating in arctic conditions to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, two Defense officials said Sunday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders.

One Pentagon official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened.

The rarely used 19th century law would allow him to send military troops into Minnesota, where protesters have been confronting federal immigration agents for weeks. He has since backed off the threat, at least for now.

“It’s ridiculous, but we will not be intimidated by the actions of this federal government,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “It is not fair, it’s not just, and it’s completely unconstitutional.”

Thousands of Minneapolis citizens are exercising their 1st Amendment rights and the protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, Frey said.

“We are not going to take the bait. We will not counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos here,” Frey said.

Gov. Tim Walz has mobilized the Minnesota National Guard, although no units have been deployed to the streets.

Peter Noble joined dozens of other U.S. Postal Service workers Sunday on their only day off from their mail routes to march against the immigration crackdown. They passed by the place where an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, during a Jan. 7 confrontation.

“I’ve seen them driving recklessly around the streets while I am on my route, putting lives in danger,” Noble said.

Letter carrier Susan Becker said she came out to march on the coldest day since the crackdown started because it’s important to keep telling the federal government she thinks what it is doing is wrong. She said people on her route have reported ICE breaking into apartment buildings and tackling people in the parking lots of shopping centers.

“These people are by and large citizens and immigrants. But they’re citizens, and they deserve to be here; they’ve earned their place and they are good people,” Becker said.

A Republican U.S. House member from Minnesota called for Walz to tone down his comments about fighting the federal government and help the federal law enforcement efforts.

Many of the ICE officers in Minnesota are neighbors just doing the jobs they were sent to do, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told WCCO-AM in Minneapolis.

“These are not mean-spirited people. But right now, they feel like they’re under attack. They don’t know where the next attack is going to come from and who it is. So people need to keep in mind this starts at the top,” Emmer said.

Across social media, videos have been posted of federal officers spraying protesters with pepper spray, knocking down doors and forcibly taking people into custody. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that immigration officers can’t detain or tear-gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when they’re observing the officers during the Minnesota crackdown.

Brook writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.