Immediately after Trump’s comments, Minneapolis locals of all ethnicity – although it is a predominantly white city – staged informal protests against the Ice arrests. The first wave of Somali immigrants arrived in the early 1990s as refugees from their country’s civil war. “I think you have nailed it there,” says Katie Cashman, a city councillor for the Seventh Ward in Minneapolis. “I think immigrants have added so much to the vibrancy of this city. Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, told the Journal that the challenge facing civic planners throughout the country is to “reinvent downtowns”.

Source: The Irish Times December 20, 2025 10:31 UTC