Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara attacked United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city during a Tuesday press conference, comparing illegal immigrants to the parents of Jesus.
ICE surged dozens of agents into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations of at least $1 billion in welfare fraud emerged, with the Treasury Department investigating allegations that proceeds from the scheme went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. O’Hara, who once apologized for discussing “East African crime” during a November interview with WCCO, said that Minneapolis Police wouldn’t ask about immigration status during the press conference. (RELATED: Crowd Surrounds ICE Agents During Enforcement Operation In Minneapolis)
“We know this has been a very, very difficult time for our communities here in the city. The fear that people are experiencing is real,” O’Hara said. “As our mayor has said, um it’s been sad to drive down Lake Street and to see so many of our businesses either closed or empty, um, it’s hard to see the impact that this is having on everyone in our community.”
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“It’s especially personal to me, having been raised a Catholic, to be in a Christian church this morning as we are approaching Christmas,” O’Hara continued. “And I cannot help but think of what is happening in our city today and how that echoes with how outsiders have been treated for thousands of years, how Mary and Joseph themselves were considered outsiders and forced to stay in a barn. That’s what we’re getting ready to commemorate as Christians around the world while all of this fear is happening right here in our town.”
O’Hara apologized at a November 20 press conference after he discussed crime by “groups of East African kids” during a Nov. 11 interview following a Change.org petition demanding an apology that had gathered only 629 signatures.
President Donald Trump announced in November that he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis in response to the fraud allegations, saying that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.” Allegations of similar fraud schemes to the one in Minnesota have since been raised by whistleblowers in Maine and Ohio.
Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said during a Dec. 7 interview that city police would not cooperate with ICE’s enforcement operation that launched in the wake of the growing fraud scandal in Minnesota.
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