Friday November 22, 2024
Thousands gather at the Minneapolis Convention Center to celebrate the first newly elected president that Somali has seen in decades, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, Feb. 26, 2017, Minneapolis. Sarah Blesener/Redux
Some 54,000 Somali refugees resettled in the United States - most of them outside Minnesota - during Barack Obama's two-term presidency, contrary to social media posts claiming that Obama brought 70,000 Somalis to the state to rig future elections in favor of Somali-American Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Posts on Facebook, opens new tab shared ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 said: "Can you say rigged election elections? Obama resettled 70,000 Somalians to MN. They elected Omar. Planned? You bet it was. Impeach Ilhan Omar!"
The post is part of a larger narrative that Democrats adopt more migrant-friendly policies while in office in order to secure votes for their party.
Omar, who has been representing Minnesota since 2019, arrived in the U.S. in 1995 as a refugee and is the only African-born member of Congress as well as one of the only Muslim women in the House of Representatives.
Around 54,000 Somali refugees came to the U.S. during the Obama administration, between January 2009 and January 2017, according to data provided to Reuters by a State Department spokesperson.
Archive reports from the Refugee Processing Center, opens new tab, which is part of the State Department, say that 47,442 Somalis arrived in the U.S. between Oct. 1, 2009, and Sept. 30, 2017. No earlier data is available online.
From 2012 to 2017, the same data show the maximum number of Somalis that resettled in Minnesota was 5,524. No earlier data for the state is available online.
United States Census Bureau data from 2023, opens new tab say 63,192 people in Minnesota had Somali ancestry - the highest concentration in the country - with the next highest in Ohio, where nearly 30,000 people reported Somali ancestry.
VERDICT
False. Over the eight years of the Obama administration, around 54,000 Somalis came to the U.S. under an existing refugee resettlement program, according to a State Department spokesperson. From 2012 to 2017, the maximum number of Somalis who resettled in Minnesota was 5,524.