Minneapolis mayor fires back after Trump slams Somali community

New York Post

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00:00To our Somali people living here in Minneapolis and in Minnesota, we love you.

00:07We stand with you.

00:09For decades now, you have made our city and our state a better place.

00:14We understand the great contributions that you have made to the state of Minnesota and

00:19the city of Minneapolis.

00:21And we have heard reports recently that the federal government is looking to deploy upwards

00:28of 100 agents focused on immigration targeting our Somali community.

00:36And the bottom line is this.

00:38We stand firm and rock solid with the Somali people here in Minneapolis.

00:44We stand against hate and we stand up for love.

00:47We know the wonderful contributions that you have made to this city.

00:51We also know that of the 80,000 plus people Somalis that are here in the state of Minnesota,

00:59almost all of them are here legally.

01:03Almost all of them are citizens.

01:06So here's an important fact that a whole lot of people are missing right now.

01:10We're talking about American citizens.

01:14And so to the extent any federal agency is looking to terrorize the people of our city,

01:22the answer is quite simple.

01:25We stand with our immigrants.

01:27We stand with the Somali community.

01:29We stand with Latino people.

01:32We stand with anyone that is looking to make Minneapolis their home and are proud to be here.

01:38This is a special place and regardless of what happens around the country, Minneapolis is

01:44a place where you should be proud to call home.

01:47We're a beacon of hope.

01:48We're a beacon of progress.

01:50We're a place where you can raise a family, where you can live a great life, where you

01:54can run with a great idea and become an entrepreneur.

01:58Something that the Somali people have done repeatedly again and again.

02:02As far as this hateful message that we have heard from the Trump administration, we reject it.

02:07By the way, the Constitution of the United States, the laws that we have in this country, they

02:15say that we stand up for due process and habeas corpus.

02:20What those laws say is that when you have done nothing wrong and you are here doing the work

02:26every day raising a family as an American citizen, you are entitled to due process under the law.

02:33That is one of the most fundamental and basic human rights that we stand up for.

02:37By the way, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from.

02:41It doesn't matter what you look like.

02:43In Minneapolis, we will stand with you.

02:47And so we have a very clear message that we want to deliver to the Somali community.

02:53And in this case, Walalayal, Walalayal, brothers and sisters, we love you.

02:59We care about you.

03:00We're going to stand tall together.

03:03Now, I'm going to turn it over to our chief of police, Chief Brian O'Hara.

03:12And he has made exceedingly clear that we stand with our immigrant communities here in Minneapolis.

03:18We do not cooperate with federal agents around doing immigration enforcement work.

03:25Rather, we work to keep people safe.

03:29That is the fundamental thing that our police officers are doing each and every day.

03:33And by the way, a whole lot of our police officers are increasingly Somali.

03:38And so we do this work together, we do this work hand in hand with you all facing some

03:42of the most difficult circumstances that this world could offer, but we do it together.

03:47We aren't backing down.

03:48Thank you, Mayor.

03:50I've been the police chief in Minneapolis for a little over three years now.

03:55I'm not from Minnesota.

03:57I'm from a different part of the country.

04:01And the Somali community here, as many communities in the city have been, the Somali community here

04:07was incredibly welcoming to me personally as an outsider.

04:12And I appreciate that.

04:14And just knowing so many people from our community who are Somali, who are police officers in the

04:21city, who are community members, who are imams, religious leaders, I'm just really taken back

04:29by the amount of hate that's being said across the board about our community here.

04:37And I know there's a lot of real fear in our community today because of it.

04:44And I just, as our mayor has said, I just need to be clear that our Somali community here needs

04:52to be able to trust the police.

04:54They need to know that they can call Minneapolis police officers, regardless of what's going

04:58on around immigration enforcement, and know that we will be here for you, as we will be

05:03here for every person in this community, every member of our community.

05:09We need that in order to keep people safe.

05:12So we need people to know that, you know, we're not going to allow certain members of our

05:16community to be targeted because they might be less likely to call the police while this

05:21stuff is going on.

05:23At the same time, we are not able to stop the federal government from enforcing federal

05:31law, just to be clear.

05:34But we will be here.

05:35We are not participating at all in any kind of, you know, immigration enforcement activity.

05:43And for the purposes of keeping everyone safe in this city, we need all people of this community

05:48to know that they can call on the Minneapolis police when they need help.

05:52dwa-

05:53how amazing

06:01you

06:03know

06:04equal

06:05to

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