Fox Tours the Minneapolis Somali Mall Where Omar Reappeared, and a Think Tank Questions Assimilation
The mall's owner calls it an incubator where Somali businesses prosper. The Center for Immigration Studies cites poverty and English-language figures and argues that high immigration slows assimilation.
Fox News Digital toured the Karmel Mall of Somalia in Minneapolis, where Rep. Ilhan Omar made her first public appearance after the raid on her home, and paired the visit with an immigration think tank's argument about assimilation.
The mall. Owner Basim Sabri, a Gaza-born immigrant and real-estate investor, led the tour. Fox describes a "community hub" of mostly women entrepreneurs, with shops selling SIM cards, money transfers, travel packages, gold, fragrances and Somali clothing, plus a food court under a large Somali flag. Omar ate lunch there with supporters and state Attorney General Keith Ellison after casting an early ballot. Sabri gave conflicting store counts, 900 and then 750. He says the mall is an incubator where businesses start and then move on to bigger spaces. "You can see [the] Somalis not only integrating in the community, but also prospering," he told Fox.
Sabri's record. Fox reports he was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in 2005 for bribing a Minneapolis public official. It also says he banned Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey from the mall in February 2024 after Frey vetoed a council ceasefire resolution on Gaza.
The think tank's case. Steven Camerota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, pointed Fox to a CIS report from last December. As Fox relays it, more than half of children in Somali-born households in Minnesota live in poverty, against 8% of children in native-born households. Among Somali-born immigrants who have lived here more than a decade, half cannot speak English "very well." CIS says 89% of Somali households receive some welfare and 39% lack a high school diploma, compared with 8% of the native-born. Camerota argues that technology, elite attitudes and sheer numbers make assimilation harder now, and that the restrictive policies of the mid-20th century helped earlier groups assimilate.
What to keep in mind. The headline's "failed assimilation" framing is Fox's. The figures come from CIS, which advocates for lower immigration, and we have not checked the underlying report. Sabri disputes the premise and says the mall is open to everyone. This is a story about a mall visit and one think tank's data, not about the federal investigation of Omar.