Minneapolis city officials and Ilhan Omar stand up against Trump administration on immigration

Aisha Chughtai is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.

Aurin Chowdhury is the daughter of Bengali immigrants.

Jason Chavez is the son of Mexican immigrants.

And Jamal Osman is a Somali refugee.

They and other Minneapolis City Council members and the mayor stood together Tuesday with U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, herself a Somali refugee, and vowed to stand up for all immigrants, documented or not, amid President Donald Trump’s deportation threats.

Earlier Tuesday, the council passed a resolution supporting Omar’s Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled Congress. She re-introduced the bill last week to repeal the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which Trump has vowed to invoke to “remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States.” During his inauguration, Trump specifically mentioned “foreign gangs and criminal networks” in “our cities and inner cities.” Deportations under that law don’t go through the nation’s severely backlogged court immigration system.

Omar said Minneapolis is likely to be one of many cities “targeted for retribution” by the Trump administration, which she said is trying to use the law in an unconstitutional way.

Mayor Jacob Frey said he’s had “countless” conversations with residents who are “terrified” they’ll drop their children off at school and never see them again. To them, he said, “We love you. We care about you. You’re not an alien in our city. You’re a neighbor.”

Minneapolis has a “separation ordinance” that prohibits city employees, including police, from asking residents about their immigration status, except when required by law.

Chughtai, vice president of the City Council, said the issue is deeply personal because she, like one in four children in Minneapolis, is the daughter of immigrants. She said everybody in the community belongs and is worthy of being treated with care and compassion.

Chowdhury said she’s been the target of “so many attacks” online in the past week.

Osman said residents are in fear, whether documented or not, and he has lately been asked so many questions he cannot answer.

“We’re going to stand together,” he said.

Chavez said he’s the “proud son of Mexican immigrants” and decried the “horrendous actions” of the Trump White House. He urged those who are “not deportable” to stand up for their neighbors who are living in fear.

Michelle Rivero, director of immigrant and refugee affairs for the city of Minneapolis, said the city is working to identify federal operations but there have been no credible reports of raids, outside of regular daily enforcement actions taken by immigration officials.

“I’m not able to share any specific enforcement operation at this moment,” she told a Star Tribune reporter.