Habiba Mohamed was working at a restaurant that served government soldiers in Somalia when al-Shabab insurgents began threatening her to stop. The terrorist group attacked the establishment, killing some of her coworkers, and Mohamed fled to a refugee camp in Uganda in 2018.
Her mother went into hiding in another part of Somalia after the attack, and they were reunited at the camp five years later. They had another difficult goodbye in April as Mohamed was approved to resettle in Minneapolis, and Mohamed fears a second long separation as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to crack down on refugee admissions.
“I was trying to apply for my mom to join with me, but when I heard about the election of Trump, I wanted to give up,” said Mohamed, 29. “I’m going to apply but I’m not sure if I will be denied.”
Trump cut the ceiling for refugee admissions to a record low of 15,000 during his last year in office. The pandemic and other factors slowed admissions even after President Joe Biden raised the figure to 125,000. In Minnesota, Somali refugee admissions dropped significantly during Trump’s first term to under 100 a year, and remained low until rising to 403 in fiscal year 2023 and 1,267 in 2024. Families like Mohamed’s fear that just as refugee admissions are gaining momentum and resettlement agencies have expanded their capacity, they will see long delays in reuniting with relatives.
Afghan, Congolese and Ethiopian refugees are other groups that will be affected, along with Karen people from Myanmar. But Somalia has been the largest nation of origin for refugees admitted to Minnesota in recent years.
The incoming president has vowed to pause refugee resettlement, along with instituting sweeping restrictions on unauthorized immigrants, saying that he would “save our cities and towns in Minnesota” and other states. He also plans to bring back a travel ban for Somalia and six other Muslim-majority countries that he instituted during his first term.
“On Day One of the Trump presidency, I will restore the travel ban, suspend refugee admission, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump said during a July rally in St. Cloud.
News of Trump’s plans has greatly worried people at Nakivale Refugee Resettlement in Uganda, where Mohamed lived for six years and her mother still resides. At the oldest refugee camp in Africa, people hoped that Trump would not win; after his election “they pray. ‘Please, Trump, change [the policies] from before,’” said Faduma Ali Farah, Mohamed’s mother, in a phone interview.