Somali American community members serve a home-made lunch in Minneapolis, Minnesota. U.S. President Donald Trump has called the Somali immigrants in Minnesota “garbage.”

Somali nationals in the U.S. are a primary target in the Trump administration’s new directive to freeze all immigration applications from 19 countries already subject to a travel ban. This pause includes green card applications and naturalization ceremonies for those on the verge of becoming citizens. U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted Somali immigrants, particularly the large Somali community in Minnesota. During a televised cabinet meeting, he called Somali immigrants “garbage,” adding that he doesn’t “want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you.” He described Somalia as “barely a country … they just run around killing each other. There’s no structure.”

Last month, he said his administration is working towards ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali residents living in Minnesota, which would affect hundreds if achieved. Trump also claimed Somali gangs are terrorizing the state of Minneapolis without providing any evidence. “Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump said in his remarks to the press after yesterday’s cabinet meeting. He also shared disparaging comments on U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the first Somali American to be elected to Congress, calling her “an incompetent person.”

Omar responded in a social media post saying, “[Trump’s] obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.” Somalian Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre was more diplomatic in his response to the remarks, saying the U.S. president has “insulted many countries, including Nigeria, South Africa. There are things that do not need comment; we just leave and skip. It is better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue.”