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Federal authorities are carrying out intensified operations this week in Minnesota as President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on the Somali community in the state. The administration halted green card and citizenship applications from Somalis and people from 18 other countries after last week's fatal shooting near the White House. During a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump went on a racist tirade against the Somali community, saying, "We don't want them in our country," and referring to Somali immigrants as "garbage." Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the United States, and the vast majority of the estimated 80,000 residents in the state are American citizens or legal permanent residents.
"We have seen vile things that the president has said, but in these moments, we need to come together and respond," says Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of CAIR-Minnesota. He also highlights the connections between Trump's targeting of the community and foreign policy. "If you demonize Muslims, then you can get away with killing Muslims abroad. This has always been the case, from the Afghanistan War to the Iraq War."
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The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a gerrymandered congressional map in next year's midterm elections that a lower court found racially discriminatory. The 6-3 ruling is another political win for President Donald Trump and his allies, who have gotten a number of favorable rulings from the justices after being stymied by lower courts. Trump has asked Republican-led states to redraw their maps in order to preserve the narrow GOP majority in Congress when voters head to the polls in November 2026. The Texas effort could flip as many as five seats for the party.
Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine, calls it a "catastrophic ruling" that further normalizes extreme partisan gerrymandering. "This whole exercise made a complete mockery of democracy."
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Immigrant rights advocate Murad Awawdeh joins us to discuss Donald Trump's nationwide anti-immigrant crackdown and how it's manifested in Trump's hometown of New York City, where hundreds of New Yorkers recently blocked a federal immigration raid targeting street vendors from West Africa before it even started. "This has never been about vetting. This has never been about security and safety. It's about cruelty," says Awawdeh about the Trump administration's persecution of immigrants. "His war on immigrants and his mass deportation agenda is all to lead to making America white again."
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