Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington claimed during a Thursday appearance on MS NOW that deporting Somalis accused of scamming Minnesota’s welfare programs would harm the American economy.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is surging into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations into at least $1 billion in fraud, some of which reportedly went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Jayapal claimed that President Donald Trump’s comments about the scammers were “extremely dangerous.”
“It’s all lies. The Somali-American community, I have one of the largest populations in my home state. In fact, I got my start working on immigrant issues, working with the Somali-American population,” Jayapal told “Ana Cabrera Reports” host Ana Cabrera. “And calling people garbage, calling them leeches, all the ways in which he’s dehumanizing immigrants, that is — that is the goal of this administration, is to dehumanize immigrants. But let me be clear, despite that, the majority of Americans across the country, regardless of political party, know that immigrants from all over the world, Somalia, India, wherever they’re from, Latin America, Africa, that immigrants have built this country and make this country what it is today and so Americans are not accepting this.”
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Trump announced he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis in response to the allegations, and also said that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.”
“I do think that the lawlessness of this administration and the cruelty is deeply hurtful and it is terrorizing people,” Jayapal claimed. “We’re hearing about people who are not going to doctor’s appointments, not getting their dialysis treatments, not getting their cancer treatments, not going to work, not showing up at their child cares or their schools, in whatever profession they’re in, because they’re terrified. And that is just so outrageous and so out of the — out of the, you know, any kind of a norm, Ana.”
State employees accused Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota of engaging in “systemic” retaliation against whistleblowers who warned of the fraud schemes Sunday as the Justice Department is prosecuting multiple federal cases. Walz admitted Sunday that the state “attracts criminals,” but demanded that Somali residents not be demonized during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It’s going to hurt us,” Jayapal claimed. “It’s going to hurt our economy for sure and it hurts our democracy and who we are as a country.”
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