Anxiety grips Minneapolis’s Somali community as immigration agents zero in on the Twin Cities

Riverside Plaza, an apartment complex home to many Somali American residents, overlooks the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood as a planned federal operation targeting Somali immigrants looms in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Tuesday. Tim Evans/Reuters

Everything seemed normal at Minneapolis’s Somali markets: Men sat in barber chairs, women browsed colorful garments at the boutiques and patrons sampled fried sambusas and rice dishes at the eateries, sometimes as the Muslim call to prayer was sung at low volume over the loudspeakers.

But beneath the calm surface, a quiet anxiety was palpable.

Pockets and purses hung a little heavier with immigration documents and passports as the specter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown loomed over the gathering spots for the Somali diaspora