Misery

Minnesota’s Somali settlement is a case of compassion without a standard. It is failing and we are at a critical moment. It is what happens when a low-education refugee population from a clan-based, low-trust society is settled in one metro, given immediate access to a generous welfare state, and told that maintaining a separate culture is the goal. There are about 80,000 to 110,000 people, most already citizens, concentrated in Minneapolis, Hennepin, Ramsey, and St. Cloud with new enclaves and concentrations building in neighboring counties. There are too many to undo and that is not a legal option as well so let’s look for real solutions. We need to stop feeding the problem. **What has failed** Equal rules were dropped. Students see Somali classmates skip the punishments everyone else gets. About 12 gangs, roughly 300 kids with an additional Halo of perhaps 1000 more young men and thousands that will not cross them. There are a known 14 homicides and 100-plus shootings in two years, plus incredible amounts of carjackings, ongoing fights and physical altercations, and mall robberies. Welfare is the norm. About half the children in poverty, weak English after a decade, food stamps and Medicaid in most households. (79% are on some form of welfare. Fraud used the same nonprofits that did the welcoming. Meal, autism, and housing cases were overwhelmingly this network. No Western country with a dense Somali population has closed the gap. Sweden is worse. ** Send them back is not a real option.** Most are US-born or naturalized. Citizens cannot be deported for failed integration. Some are removable, non-citizens after serious convictions, status fraud, and the few thousand who never naturalized. That is a slice and not a realistic solution. **What would work** Same offense, same consequence in schools and courts. No racial suspension targets. Federal gun charges, adult charging for carjacking, trespass bans, witness support. English and work required for cash and food aid. Contract bans after fraud convictions. Stop new placements and chain migration into Minnesota. Deport the removable slice. Offer paid exit to anyone who will take it. Do not pretend the citizens are leaving. Churches: quit the resettlement pipeline, back one standard, help individuals who will live by it. Stop the feel good compassion that is actually hurting not helping. In the Muslim community, Imams need to stop making an apology from leaders naming Somalis a condition for helping. They must stop defending the wrongdoing otherwise they are a veto to any progress. Electing new leaders that will not allow the corruption to continue. Holding all of our elected leaders, principles, administrators, and religious leaders accountable. Many of our current leaders are in on the grift and cover up and it’s time for this to end. Others live in fear of retribution for breaking with the ranks. ** If there’s a model we can follow, it’s Denmark, not Sweden. ** Denmark already has done the version people called cruel: lower benefits, temporary status, breakup of the enclaves, mandatory early learning of Danish. They cut the inflow of Somalis. It did not remove the citizens. Minnesota has not done even the mild version of that. “Minnesota Nice” is the perfect environment for the problem to continue, we need to toughen up. If not, the neighborhoods and the schools are in huge trouble. It’s way past time to take this problem seriously and we need everyone to work together to turn things around in Minnesota.