When Trump said the government should prioritize Americans, not immigrants, Republicans stood and cheered, but Democrats remained seated.
One lawmaker shouted “murderer” as President Donald Trump addressed Congress and called on lawmakers to stand up if they agreed that Americans should stand in front of immigrants.
In his State of the Union address to Congress on February 24, President Trump said, “The American government’s first duty is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
His comments drew cheers from Republicans and jeers from Democrats, but they did not stand.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) could be heard yelling, “You killed Americans! You’re the murderers!”
Two Americans were killed during a large-scale immigration operation in the Minneapolis area in January.
President Trump continued his criticism of immigration in his State of the Union address, saying, without providing evidence, that “millions” of immigrants come to the United States from foreign psychiatric hospitals and that corruption is rampant among Somalis and other immigrant communities in the United States.
“The Somali pirates who plundered Minnesota were a reminder that there are parts of the world where bribery, corruption, and illegal activity are the norm, not the exception,” Trump said. “Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders is bringing these problems here in the United States, and Americans are the ones paying the price.”
He announced that Vice President J.D. Vance will lead efforts to identify government wrongdoing following an investigation into alleged fraud by members of Minneapolis’ Somali community. Many of those charged with fraud in Minnesota were of Somali descent, but prosecutors charged Amy Bock, a white American, as the “ringleader.”
Minnesota has the largest population of Somalis, estimated at 60,000 to 80,000, according to the Census Bureau. Many Somalis are now citizens, having arrived under the now drastically reduced U.S. refugee program during Somalia’s civil war and famine in the early 1990s.
The Trump administration cited a fraud investigation as the reason for the controversial deployment of nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents and officers to Minneapolis, an operation that encountered significant resistance from residents and left two Americans dead.
Recent polls show that the killings of ICU nurse Alex Preti and poet and mother of three Renee Nicole Good by federal agents have led a majority of Americans to oppose ICE and the government’s aggressive immigration enforcement strategy.
In his speech, President Trump also revealed dramatic and harrowing details of crimes illegally committed by his countrymen, including the murder of 16-year-old Lisbeth Medina by a Mexican-born man. He is serving two life sentences for that crime. Trump suggested they should be deported.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has consistently emphasized arresting immigrants with violent criminal histories.
But the administration has increased the detention of immigrants without criminal records. The percentage of immigrants in custody without criminal records has ballooned from 6% of the detention population in January 2025 to 43% in February, according to ICE data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Contributor: Sarah D. Wire
