The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it has rounded up at least a dozen criminal illegal immigrants — including “child sex offenders, domestic abusers, and violent gang members” — during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) latest “worst of the worst” list includes five Somali nationals, six from Mexico and one from El Salvador.
“Sanctuary policies and politicians like Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey allowed these pedophiles, domestic terrorists, and gang members to roam the streets and terrorize Americans,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“ICE law enforcement are risking their lives to protect Minnesotans while their own elected officials sit by and do nothing. No matter when and where, ICE will find, arrest, and deport ALL criminal illegal aliens,” she added.
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The arrests include Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi, a Somali national who the DHS said “was a former member of the Gangster Disciples and is a known current member of Vice Lord Nation” gang.
“He has also been convicted of fraud, receiving stolen property, receiving a stolen vehicle, vehicle theft, and multiple probation violations,” DHS said.
Sahal Osman Shidane and Mukthar Mohamed Ali, also from Somali, have been taken into custody. They have been convicted of “criminal sexual conduct with a minor aged 13–15” and “assault, fraud, robbery, and larceny,” respectively, the DHS said.
Two Mexican nationals captured during the operation, which began on Dec. 1, have been convicted of felony smuggling aliens and aggravated assault with a weapon, the DHS added.
The Justice Department also filed federal charges Thursday against a convicted sex offender in Minnesota who allegedly kidnapped and raped a woman he met on Snapchat in September.
Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, 28, had been sentenced in May in two unrelated sexual assault cases, but under a plea agreement, a judge allowed him to serve no prison time.
“This Somali national in Minnesota is charged with raping a minor and multiple adult women before being detained only to be quickly released by a local court, after which he committed yet another rape. This horrific case illustrates how left-wing soft-on-crime policies and vetting failures put innocent people at dire risk,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “If Minnesota will not protect its own people, the Department of Justice will do it for them.”
“I can tell you, there are more charges to come,” Bondi added during an appearance Friday on “Fox & Friends.” “And again, this is good police work. They took his DNA, ran his DNA through databases for all these unsolved rapes. So let’s wait and see how many charges come after that.”
President Donald Trump called Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., “garbage” during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, accusing her and fellow Somali migrants in the U.S. of coming into the country and offering nothing but complaints.
In response to Trump, Omar said the president’s “obsession with me is creepy.”
“I hope he gets the help he desperately needs,” she said on X.
“The president fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country. We are doctors, teachers, and elected leaders working to make our country better. We will not let Trump intimidate or debilitate us,” she added in another post.
Fox News’ Patrick McGovern and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
