Minnesota Somali Activists Hiring ICE Tracker To Manage ‘Mosque Networks,’ to Evade Arrests

A Minnesota-based nonprofit focused on aiding Somalis and other East Africans is hiring someone to follow immigration agents and prevent them from making arrests.

The Awood Center, named after the Somali word for “power,” released a job posting on Facebook Jan. 14 seeking an employee to assist in “rapid response,” a term activists use to describe following or recording suspected Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in-person. The group’s rapid response program will “reach hundreds of Somali residents within days,” “prevent unlawful or coercive detentions” and conduct outreach at relevant facilities such as mosques, the job posting says.

The Awood Center did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

A rapid response worker will be “deployed” in response to ICE activity in the Twin Cities, the announcement says. The role will support the Awood Center’s “safety network” in the area and “Coordinated Community Protection Strategy” for migrants in tandem with other local advocacy groups, the organization said.

In addition to verifying suspected ICE encounters, the operation will also include “communications through WhatsApp, SMS, social media, and mosque networks,” according to the announcement.

Applicants must speak Somali, Oromo or Amharic along with English and have 6 months of “outreach worker or community organizer” experience, plus other qualifications, the post says.

The Awood Center has received years’ worth of funding from left-wing philanthropy giants such as the Tides Foundation and New Venture Fund, as well as the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tax filings show. The three groups did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. The Awood Center’s new employee will assume the role until the end of March, but the job may be extended “dependent upon funding,” according to the post.

President Donald Trump has halted deportation protections for Somali nationals, frozen immigration from their country and floated denaturalizing Somali-born U.S. citizens guilty of fraud. The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture also froze funding to Minnesota for certain federal programs due to welfare fraud overwhelmingly tied to the state’s Somali population.

Since immigration enforcement surged in the state, anti-deportation protests and ICE-tracking efforts have led to two deadly federal agent-involved shootings and several arrests.

“This work aligns directly with the goals of rapid-response funders committed to racial equity, immigrant justice, and community power-building,” the Awood Center’s job posting says.