Minnesota
ICE begins surge in Minnesota as Trump pushes for crackdown on Somali immigrants
Federal immigration authorities this week began conducting enhanced operations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a U.S. official told CBS News, targeting a region with a large population of the Somali immigrants President Trump often rails against.
The surge by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to target individuals in the Twin Cities area with deportation orders, the official said. The exact scope and duration of the operation are not clear so far.
The crackdown comes as Mr. Trump castigates Minnesota’s large community of Somali immigrants, regularly pointing to the country — often in incendiary terms — as a justification for his administration’s sweeping mass deportation campaign.
During a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Mr. Trump called people from Somalia “garbage” and claimed they “contribute nothing.”
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you,” the president said Tuesday. “Their country’s no good for a reason. Their country stinks.”
In recent days, the Trump administration has halted all immigration cases, including citizenship ceremonies, for people from Somalia and 18 other nations on its travel ban, and has ordered a reexamination of all green cards issued to immigrants from those countries, CBS News has reported.
And last month, Mr. Trump said he was ending a deportation protection program called Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants in Minnesota, claiming without evidence that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people.” The TPS program for Somalia is set to expire in March 2026, though the Department of Homeland Security has not formally announced its termination.
Mr. Trump has also brought attention to a massive public assistance fraud scandal that has dogged Minnesota politics for years, in which dozens of defendants — most of whom are of Somali descent — were accused of bilking hundreds of millions of dollars from food aid, autism services and housing programs. The president has blamed Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the fraud schemes and claimed Somali immigrants have “ripped off that state.”
Democratic officials and members of Minnesota’s Somali community have denounced Mr. Trump’s statements, with Walz on Thursday calling them “vile, racist lies and slander towards our fellow Minnesotans.”
“I am not garbage,” Hamse Warfa, a Somali-born entrepreneur who lives in the Minneapolis area and runs a nationwide education nonprofit, told CBS News Minnesota. “I’m a proud American citizen.”
Minnesota has one of the country’s largest Somali populations, with some 76,000 people of Somali descent statewide — representing just over 1% of the state’s population, according to 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state’s Somali community grew after the East African country descended into civil war in the early 1990s, causing scores of people to flee Somalia, which still faces instability, threats of insurgency and poverty.
In some cases, Somali refugees were resettled elsewhere in the U.S. before moving to Minnesota, drawn in many cases by job opportunities, safety, good schools and a longstanding network of nonprofits in the state that assist refugees, Somali American and Macalester College professor Ahmed Samatar told CBS News Minnesota in 2019. Just over half of Somali Minnesotans arrived in the U.S. before 2010, and one in five moved to the U.S. before 2000.
As of last year, the vast majority of Somali Minnesotans were American citizens. Some 52% were born in the U.S., and another 42% are naturalized citizens, leaving just over 4,000 — or more than 5% — who don’t hold U.S. citizenship, according to Census Bureau figures.
Mr. Trump’s plan to end TPS for Somali immigrants could impact a very small number of people. Just over 700 immigrants from Somalia had been approved for TPS as of March of this year, according to federal government data. The Immigrant Law Center said Minnesota was home to 430 of those Somali TPS-holders in 2023.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has acquired defenseman Jeff Petry from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The draft pick becomes a fifth-round selection in the 2026 NHL Draft if Minnesota wins two playoff rounds and Petry plays in 50 percent or more of the Wild’s playoff games during those first two rounds.
Petry, 38 (12/9/1987), owns eight assists, 22 penalty minutes and 45 shots on goal in 58 games for Florida this season. The 6-foot-3, 207-pound native of Ann Arbor, Mich., has recorded 393 points (96-297=393), 103 power-play points (24-79=103), 1,745 shots on goal and 1,616 blocked shots in 1,039 games across 16 NHL seasons with the Edmonton Oilers (2010-15), Montreal Canadiens (2015-22), Pittsburgh Penguins (2022-23), Detroit Red Wings (2023-25) and Florida (2025-26). He has also amassed 13 points (5-8=13) and 90 shots on goal in 48 postseason games across four Stanley Cup Playoff appearances (2015, 2017, 2020, 2021), all with Montreal.
Petry skated in the 1,000th game of his NHL career with Florida on Nov. 17 vs. Vancouver after signing with the Panthers as a free agent on July 1, 2025. He served as an alternate captain for Montreal for three seasons (2019-22) and set career-high marks in goals (13), assists (33) and points (46) with the Canadiens during the 2018-19 season. Petry totaled 28 points (7-21=28) in 51 career American Hockey League (AHL) games in parts of three seasons (2009-12) with the Springfield Falcons (2009-10) and Oklahoma City Barons (2010-12), and represented the United States at the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2024 IIHF World Championships, earning a bronze medal with Team USA in 2013. He was originally selected by Edmonton in the second round (No. 45 overall) of the 2006 NHL Draft. He will wear sweater No. 2 with Minnesota.
Minnesota travels to play the Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow, March 6, at 9 p.m. CT on FanDuel Sports Network and KFAN FM 100.3.
Minnesota Wild single-game tickets are on sale now at wild.com/tickets, ticketmaster.com and at the Grand Casino Arena Box Office. Flex, 11-Game, half and full season memberships are also available for purchase. Please visittickets.wild.com or contact a Wild Ticket Sales Representative by calling or texting (651) 222-WILD (9453) for more information. Group reservations of eight or more tickets can contact [email protected] for more information. Single game suite rentals are also available, contact [email protected] for more information or book instantly at wildsuites.com.
Follow @mnwildPR on X and visit www.wild.com/pressbox and for the latest news and information from the team including press releases, game notes, player interviews and daily statistics.
One of the oldest operating theaters in the Midwest is in danger of closing its doors for good.
If you’re heading south on Highway 15, Fairmont, Minnesota, is your last gasp before you hit Iowa. It officially became a city in the late 1800s — and not long after, the Opera House was born.
“We are the oldest, operating, continuously operating theater in the state of Minnesota,” said Jane Reiman, a lifelong resident of Fairmont.
When the doors opened in 1901, operas, musicals, plays, and concerts—drew people from across southern Minnesota, and even from Iowa and South Dakota.
“We have done a lot of entertainment over the years.”
The rock band America once performed at the opera house, as did folk legend Arlo Guthrie. In the 1990’s, the opera house even got a visit from Paul McCartney. His family bought seats.
“They came here and sat in the chairs, and now we have plaques on the chairs to memorialize them.”
In 3rd grade Blake Potthoff went to his first performance at the theater, and later, he acted on stage.
“You’ve grown up with this opera house?” asked WCCO’s John Lauritsen.
“Yeah. Absolutely, it’s a part of me even before I became executive director,” said Potthoff.
But like everything else, the theater has aged over time, to the point that it’s going to cost more than $4 million just to keep it running. If they can’t raise the money, the Opera House may have already seen its final curtain call.
“The building is on life support, and we are doing everything we can to make sure we get back to surviving and thriving,” said Potthoff.
Scaffolding is there, just to reinforce the roof; that’s the biggest expense. But the Fairmont community is starting to respond. Grants and donations have raised $1.5 million so far—still short, but a start.
When renovations are complete, they’d also like to maintain the old character of this theater. That includes this hand-cast plaster, which is also 125-years-old.
The chandeliers were installed a decade before the Titanic sank, and they’re hoping to keep those too. For Blake and others, the show has to go on. For the people in the seats, the actors on stage, and for the livelihood of a small town.
“There’s reason to save this building. That $4 million isn’t impossible. Only improbable. And I truly believe it too. I have a history of performing here. And I have two young kids. I want them to perform on stage like I had the opportunity,” said Potthoff.
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