Critics of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was recently named Harris’ running mate in the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, have highlighted the governor’s liberal stance on immigration despite the Somali gang problem that has plagued the Twin Cities for the past two decades.
Somali gangs began to grow in Minneapolis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as refugees fled civil war in their home country.
“Minnesota has always been a welcoming place to new immigrants, and we have no problem with that, but in 2008 [through] “From 2012 through the beginning of the Walz administration, the refugee population just kept growing and growing,” former Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, a Minneapolis native and law enforcement officer of 38 years, told Fox News Digital. “And it just continued unchecked.”
Stanek, who retired in 2019, testified before Congress in 2012 about Somali gangs and said they differed from “traditional” American gangs because they didn’t deal in drugs to the same extent as other organized crime groups.
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According to open source reports, 29 Somali gang members were indicted on prostitution trafficking charges in November 2010. Over a 10-year period, Somali gang members transported underage girls from Minnesota to Ohio and Tennessee for prostitution. (Minneapolis Police Department)
“The most successful gang prosecutions involve a drug nexus. Somali gang criminal activity is not based in any specific geographic area or territory,” he said at the time. “Gang members often congregate in specific areas, but criminal activity occurs elsewhere. Criminal activity often occurs over a broad area that extends outside the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, and their mobility makes them difficult to track.”
Stanek said at the time that typical crimes committed by Somali gangs include credit card fraud, including “credit card skimming,” witness tampering and intimidation, store robberies and what Stanek described as “the nexus of gang activity and terrorism.”
“In 2007, the local Somali community began reporting that some young men from the area were disappearing without warning,” Stanek explained in his testimony. “It was subsequently discovered that 20 young men had left Minneapolis and traveled to Somalia to train and fight as members of al-Shabaab.”
One of these men moved to Minneapolis as a teenager in 1983 and, after being arrested for shoplifting, “joined a violent street gang called the Somali Hot Boys” and later “emerged as a recruiter for al-Shabaab, eventually leaving Minneapolis for the Horn of Africa in 2008.”
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Attorney General Eric Holder, along with representatives of law enforcement agencies and U.S. attorneys from Alabama, Minnesota and California, announced the indictment of 14 people in 2014 for aiding Somali terrorist groups. (Brendan Smiarowski/Getty Images)
According to the Minnesota nonprofit American Experiment, the state accounts for 25% of ISIS recruits in the country.
While the majority of Somali refugees in Minnesota are peaceful, Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali community in the US, is particularly plagued by a variety of violent gangs that have been dubbed the “Somali Mafia,” “Somali Outlaws,” “Young and Thuggin’ (YNT),” and “Taliban,” as Fox News Digital previously reported.
“Over 95 percent of Somalis are good, law-abiding people. … They want to come here to raise their families and start jobs. That’s a good thing, but the other 5 percent continue to do bad things and commit violent crimes.”
The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, nicknamed “Little Mogadishu” for its large population of immigrants from Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, saw a 56% increase in violent crime between 2010 and 2018, the department said. Star Tribune.
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Young men play soccer in Curry Park, next to the Cedar Riverside apartment complex in Minneapolis, a predominantly Somali community, on June 30, 2011. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Minnesota’s Somali population has grown since the early 20th century, but in recent years they have become the state’s largest immigrant group, with an estimated population of more than 86,000 in the state today but a figure that could reach 125,000, Stanek testified in 2012.
Nearly half of its population, more than 44,000 people, are foreign-born Somali immigrants, according to census data from 2008 to 2022. Minnesota Compass.
Of Minnesota’s foreign-born population of 500,000, Somalis are now the state’s fastest-growing group after Mexicans, according to Minnesota Compass.
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Why Minnesota? In addition to Democratic Party leaders supporting policies that help illegal immigrants, experts say the state’s large Somali population is due to volunteer groups that help resettle refugees in the U.S. Minnesota is also a designated refugee resettlement state.
Somali refugees, many of whom have survived decades of war, are seeking new lives in America. While some have found peace in Minnesota, others say foreign-born and US-born Somali youth have turned to violence within American communities.
Somali refugees seeking a new life in America have survived decades of war. (Hassan Bashi/Xinhua)
“People who come here come from experiences where they don’t trust the police and where the police are known to be corrupt. The challenge for us is getting them to cooperate,” a Minneapolis police officer told Fox News Digital in 2019. “They often call 911 when they need help, but when we come, they often don’t tell us who is causing the problem, so we can’t take action or stop the crime from happening again.”
Walz wrote letters to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. August 2021, As part of a potential budget reconciliation bill, he is working to open a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, including those who have escaped deportation and those who came to the U.S. as minors.
In 2019, Walz petitioned the Trump administration to send more refugees to Minnesota.
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Kamala Harris and her newly selected running mate, Tim Walz, have been campaigning across the country this week. (Andrew Harnick)
“Minnesota has a strong moral tradition of welcoming those seeking refuge. Our state has always stepped up to help those fleeing desperate situations and in need of a safe place to call home,” Walz wrote in a letter to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I agree to the continued resettlement of refugees in Minnesota.”
Stanek said Walz “has not been good for public safety or law enforcement in the state of Minnesota.”
“His promises as a moderate Democrat from southern Minnesota have changed dramatically and he continues to move further and further to the left.”
“In 2018, the Minnesota State Police supported Tim Walz in his first run for Governor of Minnesota. They deeply regret their actions. Now, six years later, they feel they have been deceived for too long.”
ISIS recruiting activities in Somalia could pose a “significant threat to the U.S. presence” in the region
While Walz’s stance on immigration and illegal immigration generally aligns with Democrats, Republicans have criticized some of his policies enacted in recent years as far-left, including a bill he signed into law last year that would allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
Democrats also passed legislation during Gov. Walz’s term that allowed undocumented immigrants to qualify for tuition-free college programs and expanded access to the state’s MinnesotaCare to undocumented immigrants. Axios reportedIn 2018, he appeared to voice his support for the “sanctuary policy.”
“I always say, tell me how tall it is,” Walz said during a July appearance on CNN, speaking about the U.S.-Mexico border wall. “If it’s 25 feet, I’ll invest in a 30-foot ladder factory.”
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The Trump campaign responded: “Tim Walz wants to invest in ‘ladder factories’ to help illegal immigrants get over the border wall. Walz supports sanctuary cities, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, free college for illegal immigrants, free health care for illegal immigrants, etc. Just like Kamala.”
Fox News’ Rebecca Rosenberg and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
