Ernesto Londoño

I think people here have been shell-shocked by the comments.

I think they're not surprised that the president would say things that are disparaging of the Somali community or about his immigration philosophy.

But I do think the tone and tenor of

of what was said at the White House yesterday struck people here as just beyond the pale.

And it's induced a prevailing sense of terror among the 80,000 or so people of Somali ancestry that live in the state, the vast majority of whom are American citizens or legal permanent residents.

And they're a big part of the fabric of Minnesota.

They're ascendant in politics.

There's many Somali Americans who are in the state legislature and hold other local office.

They are business owners.

They work blue-collar jobs.

They work in health care.

And the idea that overnight their president refers to them as garbage and says that he wishes they would just all go home was truly jarring.

This week, we learned that the Trump administration has deployed roughly 100 immigration agents to come in and apparently look for Somalis who are subject to deportation orders.

As we understand it, this is a fairly small pool of people.

We're talking about maybe a few hundred people who have pending asylum cases or for whatever reason,

came here legally but fell out of status because they may have committed a crime.

So what's happened is there's a sense that a crackdown on immigration is starting to take root in Minnesota and that businesses and homes may become the targets of immigration raids.

What this has meant so far is that people are thinking twice about whether they feel safe going to work.

even if they have legal status.

And just people kind of mulling whether they even feel comfortable going to the grocery store.