Democratic mayoral candidate Omar Fateh of Minneapolis said in an interview that his first priority as mayor would be to protect “undocumented residents” from what he claimed was a “hostile federal government.”
Fateh won the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in July over Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, making him the favorite to win the general election in the city. Fateh — when asked by a reporter — laid out his priorities in a clip posted to X on Monday, claiming President Donald Trump was causing concern for “our neighbors.”
“Day one, if you were elected, what would be some of your top two, three priorities for the city?” the reporter asked Fateh.
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“So that’s a very good question,” Fateh said. “So the first, I would say, would be a hostile federal government, with not only Donald Trump in office, but he has essentially a trifecta, both chambers of Congress and the Supreme Court. And a lot of our neighbors, especially our undocumented residents, are very concerned.”
Fateh has been compared to Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of New York City, who won the Democratic nomination for mayor of the Big Apple in the June 24 primary, beating out former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and other candidates. Mamdani ran on left-wing policies, including establishing government-run grocery stores while also calling to increase taxes on predominantly white and wealthy neighborhoods of New York to fund free child care and free use of transit buses.
Mamdani said he will oppose efforts by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove illegal immigrants.
Trump has made illegal immigration a priority in his second term after campaigning on the issue during the 2024 presidential election. Trump, upon taking office Jan. 20, issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration and border security, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang TdA and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations.
