Free Republic

More than 100 Kenyans were deported from the United States in 2017, a sharp increase during Donald Trump's first year as president. The rise in the number of Kenyans removed from the US — from 63 in 2016 to 103 last year — reflects an overall increase in deportations of Africans. US authorities expelled a total of 2, 134 individuals from sub-Saharan countries in the past fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2017. Somalia, one of eight countries targeted in the latest iteration of Mr Trump's selective ban on immigration, accounted for the sharpest increase in African removals. A...

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman is convening a grand jury to gather evidence in the 2017 shooting of Justine Damond, but said he still will decide whether Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor will face charges in her death. Matthew Harrity, Noor's partner the night Damond was killed, was served a subpoena Wednesday to testify before a grand jury, said his attorney Fred Bruno. "It came as a surprise," Bruno said. He declined to say when Harrity will testify. Hennepin County attorney's office spokesman Chuck Laszewski maintained that Freeman "will continue the office's two-year-old policy where he makes the decision on...

A United States District Judge has halted the deportation of more than 90 Somali nationals — 60 of which are convicted criminals — back to Somalia following a lawsuit alleging abuse by federal immigration officials. In a ruling this week, a District Judge stopped about 92 Somali nationals from being deported after a class-action lawsuit was filed claiming federal immigration officials mistreated the group of Somalis on a previous deportation effort that was never fully executed. On Dec. 7, the group of Somali illegal aliens and convicted criminals were on their way to Somalia from Louisiana when they stopped in...

The government’s efforts to deport 92 Somali nationals — including some who lived in Georgia and Minnesota — did not go as planned this week, when the flight encountered some snags in Senegal and returned to the U.S. with all on board. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released statement Saturday, saying relief flight crew members were “unable to get sufficient rest due to issues with their hotel in Dakar.” “The aircraft, including the detainees and crew on board, remained parked at the airport to allow the relief crew time to rest,” ICE said in its statement. “During this time, the...

The Trump administration is trying to strip citizenship away from four Somalis who allegedly lied in the process of using the Diversity Visa Program.“For decades, the American people have begged and pleaded with their government for a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest—a system that has as its foremost priorities their safety, their jobs, and their well-being,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Monday. “The current immigration system is easily abused by fraudsters and nefarious actors, and that’s certainly true of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.”The Diversity Visa Program has come under criticism after a...

Ahmed Jama's wife said she feared for her life. A rookie Minneapolis police officer has been charged with threatening his wife during an argument at their home the night before he was sworn in as a member of the city's police force. Dakota County prosecutors say Ahmed Jama, 29, got into an argument with his wife at the couple's Apple Valley home around 11 p.m. on Aug. 1, according to a criminal complaint. Jama threatened to shoot his wife in the head, authorities said, telling her that he would get away with it.

The Somali-American council member who represents Minneapolis' 6th Ward is calling for change within the police department while proclaiming the shooting of Justine Damond "is not a Somali issue" but a policing issue. Council Member Abdi Warsame took aim at the media and Facebook users who are calling Officer Mohamed Noor a “Somali killer cop.” Warsame referred to those statements, along with the statement issued last week by former Congressman Michele Bachmann, in which Bachmann said Noor was "an affirmative-action hire by the hijab-wearing mayor of Minneapolis," as “trash.” Warsame told reporters at a news conference Sunday that he has never...

Health officials in Minnesota have been scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has sickened primarily Somali-American children in the state. So far health officials have identified 34 cases, still mostly in Hennepin County, and they're worried there will be more. In Minnesota, the vast majority of kids under two get vaccinated against measles. But state health officials say most Somali-American 2-year-olds have not had the vaccine — about six out of ten. As the outbreak spreads, that statistic worries health officials, including Michael Osterholm, who directs the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Members of Minneapolis' Somali-American community say one of their main business districts -- often referred to as "The Somali Mall" -- is so ridden with crime, they no longer feel safe. Located at 24th Street East and home to dozens of businesses, more than 100 911 calls have been placed from the location since last October, according to police records. Problems include assaults, thefts, fights, and property damage. "I know a friend of mine being beaten up here badly and took his car," customer Asad Abdulahi recalled Monday. The owner of Juba Cafe, located across the street from the mall,...

An estimated 4,000 Somali migrants in the U.S. are expected to be deported by President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

After 30 years of refugees from Somalia being settled in Minneapolis, the Somalis have taken over the city’s sixth ward. And Minnesotans are starting to get a picture of what that will look like going forward. The mayor’s office and the entire city council are up for election in November, which means it’s caucus time in Minneapolis. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL, chooses delegates for each candidate at caucus meetings attended by thousands of party members. In the Somali-dominated sixth ward, hundreds of Somali refugees packed a small gymnasium Tuesday for a caucus and things quickly devolved into pandemonium. Emergency...

According to the government’s thinking, not only will it give Muslim migrants work, the hope is that automotive companies like Volvo will use the camels in their advertisements in Sweden. Marketing genius, eh? The government thinks that tourists might come to Sweden to “pet the camels” and that there “will be fashion shows.” “Camel products will be sold.” I kid you not. And selling of camel milk which “is said to help autism,” which is completely untrue. Camel milk does not cure autism.

A federal appeals court Monday upheld the conviction of Mohamed Osman Mohamud for attempting to detonate a bomb during downtown Portland's holiday tree-lighting ceremony, rejecting his argument that federal authorities had entrapped him. While the three-member panel of judges in the 9Th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the government's conduct was "quite aggressive at times,'' they concluded it fell short of a due process violation, according to the 50-page ruling. "The complete lack of reluctance on Mohamud's part to participate in the bombing - indeed his immediate zeal to see it through - separates this case from those in...

An internationally-recognized Somali-American nonprofit has declined to accept a federal grant in protest of President Donald Trump’s restrictions on refugees and travel. Ka Joog, which counsels and mentors young people in Minnesota, has turned down a $500,000 federal grant to show opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies that the nonprofit says targets Somalia and six other predominately Muslim countries. Ka Joog Executive Director Mohamed Farah told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that as much as the organization does not want to turn down such a significant grant, the board has decided it cannot ethically accept the money in light of Trump’s...

The men pay hundreds of dollars for middle-of-the-night cab rides north to the Canadian border. They wade into the Red River to dodge border agents in summer and trudge through waist-deep snow in winter. On Christmas Eve, two wandered in the wind-swept flatness and lost their fingers to frostbite. Minnesota has become a key stop for a soaring number of migrants from Somalia and other African countries who sneak into Canada to seek asylum. More than 430 arrived in Winnipeg since April, up from 70 three years ago. Most come by way of Minneapolis, sometimes after grueling treks across Latin...

KENYA Some 95 Somalis, all men, and two Kenyans have landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi after being deported from the United States, Nairobi News reports. The men, believed to have been in the US without a permit, were accompanied by American security officers. The officers followed the Somali citizens on a plane back to Mogadishu. The Kenyan newspaper The Star writes that staff at the JKI Airport heard the American security officers say that the deportations were a result of President Donald Trump’s policy of deporting illegal immigrants. The Star writes that an estimated 30 000...

In the final week of the Obama Administration, the outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) extended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali nationals and others for an additional 18 months. The program was not scheduled to expire until March 2017. Somali nationals, and “eligible individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in Somalia,” now have an additional 18 months added to their “temporary” status that has been in place since 1991. The program was extended by President George W. Bush in 2001 and by President Obama in 2012. When a “temporary” status lasts 25 years, it’s not temporary at...

In sentencing nine young Somali-Minnesotans on terror conspiracy charges this week, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis closed a chapter in the federal government’s long, extraordinary investigation of ISIL recruitment in Minnesota. In nine hearings over three days before a courtroom packed with the families of the young men who sought to give their lives to ISIL, Davis repeatedly underlined a clear message: There is a terrorist cell in Minneapolis and it is still alive today. “Everyone talks about Brussels or Paris having cells,” Davis said one day, then, raising his voice: “We have a cell here in Minneapolis.”

A 22-year old Somali man who arrived in the United States in September faces charges of criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. “A Minneapolis man is being charged with criminal sexual conduct after being accused of raping a woman on a bus passing through Crookston Friday,” according to the Crookston Times. “Mohamed Harir Ayanle, 22, was released from the Northwest Regional Correction Center Monday on a $5,000 bond and on the condition that he does not leave Minnesota,” the Times reported. According to the criminal complaint filed with the Minnesota 9th Judicial District...

How Trump Can Avoid the Ethical Tar Pit Somali “Community” Given Special Access to Secured Areas of Airports JW Reveals Shocking Details About Mexican Heroin Cartels How Trump Can Avoid the Ethical Tar Pit A tsunami of change is washing over Washington D.C. as a new administration, from a different party, enters the process of transition. For us at Judicial Watch, however, it’s business as usual. As corrupt as the Obama administration has been, we are under no illusion that a new broom sweeps entirely clean. Even before he takes the oath of office, President-elect Trump is under pressure over...