Jewish Involvement in the Push for Demographic Replacement in Minnesota

Minneapolis, once a bastion of Scandinavian and Midwestern homogeneity, now grapples with the fallout of unchecked mass immigration. Somali welfare dependency strains resources and cultural clashes erupt daily.

Recent ICE controversies have exposed the rot: aggressive raids targeting criminal Somali networks in the Cedar-Riverside “Little Mogadishu” neighborhood sparked outrage from refugee advocates. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) condemned these ICE actions targeting the Somali community. Rabbis joined in the attacks, demanding ICE leave Minneapolis entirely.

The National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota stood with immigrants as part of a coalition of over 85 Jewish organizations. These defenses of illegal networks amid skyrocketing crime underscore how federal policies and activist agencies engineered this crisis, transforming Minnesota from virtually no Somali residents in the 1980s to over 100,000 by the mid-2020s—a remarkable demographic shift driven by chain migration and resettlement.

The foundation was the Refugee Act of 1980, signed by President Jimmy Carter. This landmark legislation raised the annual refugee ceiling from 17,400 to 50,000, established the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services, and created a permanent statutory definition of refugee aligned with international law. The Act authorized the Attorney General to admit refugees as permanent residents without meeting standard immigrant requirements like labor certification, public charge tests, or literacy tests. When Somalia’s central government collapsed in 1991 and civil war erupted, the United States began issuing refugee visas to Somalis in 1992. The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration coordinated with voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) to place them nationwide.

VOLAGs executed the placements. Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis were primary, motivated by Christian mandates: Lutheran Social Service expresses “the love of Christ for all people through service that inspires hope, changes lives, and builds community.” World Relief Minnesota, a Christian nonprofit, empowers churches to serve refugees, citing biblical passages.

The International Institute of Minnesota and Minnesota Council of Churches, affiliated with Episcopal Migration Ministries, joined in. Catholic Charities provided 90-day resettlement services and remains the only agency in Southeastern Minnesota. Somali-led groups amplified this resettlement venture. The Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota offered ESL courses and advocacy; Somali Family Services built the Puntland Library; Somali Action Alliance hosted forums.

Despite this considerable Christian organizational role, it would be negligent to ignore the Jewish organizational role and the pivotal part played by the late Jewish Senator Paul Wellstone in changing Minnesota’s demographics. In a recent Twitter thread, Mike Peinovich called attention to Wellstone’s role in the demographic transformation of Minnesota, which is often overlooked by political observers.

From his first days in the Senate, Wellstone brought his family’s Ukrainian Jewish immigrant experience to bear on policy. His voting record showcased a commitment to promoting mass migration at a time when such positions carried significant political risk. The Congressional Record details a consistent pattern of support for expanding immigration. He voted against limiting welfare for immigrants. In addition, he supported extending Section 245(i), allowing legalization without return. In 1996, he voted against Clinton’s welfare reform due to restrictions on legal immigrants receiving food stamps. His most significant immigration legislation came in 2000. Working alongside Minnesota House Representative Bruce Vento, Wellstone championed the Hmong Veterans’ Naturalization Act which helped Hmong and Laotian Vietnam War veterans overcome language barriers to become full U.S. citizens. These veterans had fought alongside American forces during the Secret War in Laos, then resettled as refugees in the United States.

A Hamline University study on Hmong and Somali political incorporation noted that these refugee communities benefited from legislation championed by Minnesota’s progressive congressional members, including Hubert Humphrey and Paul Wellstone, to safeguard immigrants and refugees. Wellstone practiced what colleagues in the Senate called the politics of “diversity, inclusion, and empowerment.”

Wellstone was deeply embedded in Jewish community life, attending events hosted by American Friends of Lubavitch on Capitol Hill. Rabbi Levi Shemtov described him as a “real mensch” who showed real respect for Jewish things despite political disagreements. He worked closely with the Reform Jewish movement, articulating a special identification with its focus on social justice.

Wellstone had plenty of help from the organized Jewish community in transforming Minnesota’s demographics. Jewish Family Service of St. Paul, founded in 1911 to serve Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe, today serves immigrants of all backgrounds including Somalis. Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis states that in recent years, Minnesota has been resettling one of the largest groups of new Americans from African countries, specifically Somalia.

The numbers tell a story of rapid demographic change. In the 1980s, the Somali presence in Minnesota was essentially negligible, some students and a tiny number of families with no statewide breakout in census data. The civil war, famine, and state collapse in Somalia after 1991 generated a massive refugee outflow. By the late 1990s, state demographic estimates suggested at least 3,140 Somalis statewide, still a very small share but growing fast. The 2000 Census counted 11,164 Somalis in Minnesota, about 0.2 to 0.25 percent of the population.

By 2010, about 25,000 Somalis lived in Minnesota, roughly 0.4 to 0.5 percent of the state. A 2015 Census-based estimate gave 57,000 Somali-ancestry residents. By 2018, there were about 43,000 Somalia-born residents, representing 0.77 percent of the state, with 94,000 Somali speakers. Recent figures converge on roughly 90,000 to 110,000 people of Somali ancestry in Minnesota. A December 2025 report, citing Minnesota Census data stated that 108,000 Somalis call Minnesota home, with about 95 percent citizens and roughly 5,800 non-citizens.

The Somali heritage share of Minnesota’s population went from effectively zero percent in the 1980s to around 2 percent by the mid-2020s. Most of the steep growth occurred from the early 1990s through the 2000s, as refugee admissions increased and chain migration of family members kicked in. Growth continued in the 2010s and 2020s, but the key story became consolidation and citizenship rather than just raw inflows.

These seismic demographic shifts in Minnesota and across the United States are no accident. They are the deliberate handiwork of Jewish activists and politicians like Paul Wellstone and organizations like HIAS and Jewish Family Service, which have diligently engineered the racial transformation of America through refugee resettlement and mass migration advocacy, culminating with their triumph in passing the 1965 immigration law that set the stage for the current reality. The infrastructure and incentives that have developed since have resulted in recruiting a great many Christian allies but it’s hard to see their motives as religious—and they are certainly not ethnic. To a considerable extent these allies, like HIAS, have a very large financial incentive to advocate for refugees. For example, Catholic Charities received around $2 billion during the Biden years, accounting for around two-thirds of their budget, and there are huge financial incentives for those who run it. For example, the median President & Chief Executive Officer Salary at Catholic Charities Agencies is $842,554 with a range from $640,308 to $1,075,827. Somalis aren’t the only onces gaming the system.

Fortunately, refugee programs have been cut back by the Trump administration, with White South Africans given preference, so refugee resettlement services have fallen on hard times.