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.

Caley Graber, Northfield, senior, 118 pounds: Graber owns two girls state championships and finished fifth in the boys state meet last season.

Charli Raymond, Simley, junior, 124 pounds: With four state championships, Raymond is on pace to become Minnesota’s most successful wrestler, regardless of class.

Nora Akpan, Centennial, senior, 130 pounds: State champ in 2025 also is the US Jr. Freestyle champ at 140.

Cassandra Gonzales, Apple Valley, senior, 142 pounds: A three-time state champion, Gonzales lost in the U.S. Junior Freestyle 155-pound semifinals.

Audrey Rogotzke, Stillwater, senior, 148 pounds. Rogotzke, a two-time state champion, is the winningest active girls high school wrestler in Minnesota with 106 victories.

Sarah Pulk, Badger/Greenbush-Middle River, junior, 155/170 pounds: Paulk, ahree-time state champion, is a sound technician.

The holidays are upon us, and in the town of Kellogg, Minnesota, you’ll find a toy store unlike any other: LARK Toys.

“They are getting into everything, but that’s good because it’s a toy store!” said Katelyn Key, a LARK customer shopping with her kids.

And no better place to get into things than a store of such massive size.

“We fill about 20,000-square-feet plus with the best toys that we can find,” said Miranda Gray-Burlingame.

She and her family are the proud owners of LARK Toys. The original owners, the Kreofskys, opened the store in 1983 and named it “Lost Arts Revival by Kreofsky,” or LARK for short.  

“‘Lark’ also means a carefree, whimsical adventure,” said Gray-Burlingame.  

And that’s what they aim for. Part of this is a museum, and a trip down “Memory Lane” reveals toys that are nearly a century old. There’s even a Gen X Star Wars corner. 

“An 8-year-old John Lauritsen would have loved this section right here. These are vintage toys from the ’80s,” Lauritsen said.

“The Rancor is probably the most celebrated, but all of them have been played with for many, many, many hours,” said Gray-Burlingame.

From the toy store to the bookstore, which has a vast selection — but it’s not quite as it seems. One of the book shelves is actually a secret door that leads into a gathering space designed for celebrations.

“It’s for music, for meetings, for dancing,” she said.  

What makes LARK truly stand out is its hand-made selection, and that’s where Tim Monson comes into play. He’s been doing this for a long time.

“It’s coming up on 40 years. I do all the maintenance, the woodworking, build all the displays,” said Monson, LARK shop manager.

He creates letter blocks, pull toys and puzzles. Monson is a one-man Santa workshop, and there’s pride in knowing customers buy thousands of his hand-crafted toys each year.

“And that’s a uniqueness you can’t find anymore, so pretty proud of that,” said Monson.

There’s the sound of his bandsaw, and then there’s the sound of a carousel. Every half hour, fish, ostriches and giraffes with monkeys spin around the store.

Just like the hand-carved toys you find at LARK, it also houses a carousel featuring animals hand-carved from basswood. But this ride proves you’re never too old to be a kid.

“For little kids and all the way up to folks who are over 100, we have a wall of photos back there of people who are over 90. When they come, they get a free ride and a certificate that says they’re ‘forever young,’” said Gray-Burlingame.

It’s a different kind of toy story, a place that’s hoping to build happiness one playset at a time.  

“We know that everybody loves their kids and wants a better world for them, and watching them enjoy their kids, it’s just great,” said owner Kathy Gray.

“We are really, really lucky to be in the business of playing,” said Gray-Burlingame. “We hope that LARK has a very long, long, fun future.”

LARK also has mini golf when the weather cooperates. They are open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, but are only open on the weekends during January and February.