Community

Jury finds seller Chad Banken liable of preying on Muslim homebuyers with inflated prices   The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sued real estate broker Chad Banken after Sahan Journal and ProPublica published a joint investigation in 2022 about contract for deed sales   by Joey Peters and Mohamed Ibrahim   Jurors found real estate broker Chadwick Banken liable Monday afternoon of consumer fraud and discrimination for selling homes at inflated prices and for preying on Muslim buyers. The verdict comes after two weeks of testimony and more than seven hours of deliberation. Banken was being tried in civil court for allegedly breaking the state’s consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices laws. Banken sold 160 homes using contracts for deed, which offer fewer protections for consumers compared to conventional mortgages. Jurors unanimously found Banken liable for violations of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Act, and federal deceptive, abusive and unfair trade practices laws. He was found liable for violating the Minnesota Prevention Against Consumer Fraud Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Jurors also found him liable for discrimination under the state Human Rights Act. Neither Banken nor his attorney, Jack Pierce, were present in the courtroom Monday to hear the jury’s decision. They…

After harrowing immigration revetting interviews, many Minnesota refugees left in limbo   Operation PARRIS targeted 5,600 Minnesota refugees on a path to permanent residency for “enhanced screening.” Court challenges led to a convoluted legal situation, with some interviews still going forward, while others have been canceled at the last minute.   by Shubhanjana Das   The Karen mother of two had been in the U.S. for three years and was on track to get her green card when she was called in by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for a fresh interview. The stakes were high: being separated from her two kids – one of whom was born here – and sent back to Myanmar, a country she had never lived in. She had a day to prepare. During her early April interview, she grew visibly nervous and at times broke down as questions turned to the abuse and threats she experienced before emigrating from Thailand, said her interpreter, Zaw, who requested a pseudonym for his own and his clients’ safety   “She was asked, ‘Have you lived in Burma before? Why don’t you go back to Burma right now? If you go back to Burma right now, will bad…

  Inspired by her autistic siblings, Minneapolis occupational therapist launches sensory-friendly hijab   The hijab uses lightweight fabric and padding added around the ears to help ensure that loud sounds aren’t as overwhelming. by Binta Kanteh   It was a deceptively simple question, the kind that lands on the right person at the right time, inspiring them to create a product that can improve the lives of those who need it most. During the last year of Najma Omar’s doctoral program in occupational therapy at the University of Minnesota, a professor asked students to think about tools that hadn’t yet been invented to help people — but should exist. It prompted Najma, a 28-year-old Minneapolis woman, to start thinking about her own family. Among the 10 children, three are autistic, each with somewhat different communications styles and support needs. In particular, she thought about her younger sister Nasteho, 17, the only girl among the three. She knew that Nasteho struggled with finding a hijab that could assist with her noise sensitivity without adding a lot of weight or increasing pressure around her ears, which headphones or earmuffs did. “[The professor’s prompt] wasn’t an assignment, but it was more so a question…

  Immigrants’ pathway to citizenship under Trump is slower, more costly and frustrating   The number of Minnesotans becoming U.S. citizens has slowed to a trickle due to several Trump administration policies, including a pause on naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies. by Katelyn Vue   Naturalization appointments and ceremonies across the country were abruptly paused last September, causing a ripple effect for many immigrants, who had to cancel travel plans, delay helping family members with their immigration status and reapply for green cards that expired. Federal officials started slowly rescheduling appointments mid-March, but local attorneys say most of their clients are still waiting to hear whether they’ll receive an appointment, and they worry how long it’ll take to process the backlog. “This is really heartbreaking to explain to the clients,” said Pelin Sangu, a St. Louis Park immigration attorney. “A last-minute cancellation is really frustrating, because these proceedings take years. They are spending their time, their efforts, their money on it, so it’s very, very hard on them.” Between January and March of 2025, 3,368 immigrants were naturalized in Minnesota compared to 137 in the same period this year, according to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota. Several local attorneys told…

BlueHorn Tea’s Yubi Hassan brews success selling aromatic Somali tea   The young entrepreneur and mentor hopes his small-batch tea catches on with the broader population. by Yvette Higgins   Yubi Hassan remembers the aroma of tea filling his grandmother’s house in Somalia as he spent long afternoons chatting with relatives and friends. “For me, my grandma’s place was like heaven,” he said. When Yubi wanted to help out, his grandmother gave him the job of tea maker. It became his specialty. Yubi, 24, now owns BlueHorn Tea, a company based in Hopkins that makes authentic Somali loose-leaf tea to brew at home. Yubi said all his tea is made by hand, in small batches. “People associate Somalia with negative things like war, terrorism, piracy, famine, all things happening in Somalia,” he said. “Our goal was to create something positive from our culture that our people can associate with us.” BlueHorn Tea brings in about $15,000 a month selling tea to Somali grocery stores in five states and farmers markets in Minnesota. Yubi hopes to expand to sell to mainstream grocery stores, while still grinding, blending and packaging the tea in-house. “It’s a passion for me,” Yubi said. “I did not get…

Community education is key in combatting vaping and hookah use among Somali Minnesotans   Tobacco educators reach out to families about the dangers of smoking — no matter its delivery system — and second-hand smoke by Mohamed Ibrahim   When Hassan Mohamed, a tobacco use prevention coordinator with African Immigrants Community Services of Minneapolis, talks with Somali youth about the hazards of tobacco, he finds himself facing two main adversaries: vaping and hookahs. Hassan, who has been on the job for six months, and his team hear of those tobacco delivery systems’ popularity during their visits to schools and community centers. “A lot of youth [vape] nowadays — high schoolers, college students — and actually fall for advertising for different flavors,” he said. “The Somali community are also doing what’s called hookah, which is a different kind of smoking.”   According to the most recent Minnesota Youth Tobacco survey by the state Department of Health, the rate of teens who took their first hit of a nicotine vape or e-cigarette in 2023 nearly doubled, to 30%, since 2017. About one in 10 teens reported using vapes and e-cigarettes regularly, with 80% of those teens reporting being dependent on them. The good…

Court challenges have blocked Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. For now.   As President Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship work their way through the courts, Minnesota attorneys and legal experts say it could reshape our definition of who belongs in the U.S. by Katelyn Vue   Hours after he was sworn in to his second term in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending birthright citizenship, or the right of all people born or naturalized on U.S. soil to citizenship. That order is currently on pause following a flurry of lawsuits and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the ability of lower courts to block a policy from taking effect nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. Minnesota legal experts and immigration attorneys say that redefinition of citizenship could create an underclass of future children born here, but denied the legal protection of citizens. “We’ve had millions and millions of people who have operated their lives based on this understanding that their children born here are U.S. citizens,” said Paschal Nwokocha, a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney. “We have our society…

Foreign medical school graduates who meet certain requirements would have shorter U.S. residencies in Minnesota under a proposal in the Legislature. Backers say it would help ease physician shortages in underserved areas.   by Mohamed Ibrahim   Since childhood, Abdilahi Ali Mohamoud has wanted to be a doctor, influenced by the dire state of health care in Somalia amid a decades-long civil war. After studying medicine in China for five years, doing a clerkship in India for a year and then practicing medicine in his native Somalia, Mohamoud had his sights set on coming to the United States. “My goal was always to be able to get the highest [level of] education possible,” he said. “I didn’t feel like there was any other better place than the U.S., and pursuing the dream of training here and hopefully practicing here and getting the best knowledge that I can.” Mohamoud, 31, passed the necessary exams and was matched into a residency program at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis. But for many international medical school graduates, the bar of entry — the yearslong process to become licensed to practice in the United States — is too high. Now a bill in the Minnesota Legislature —…

The celebration of Somali independence includes a street festival in Minneapolis, a multiday soccer tournament, a concert at the Ordway, and festivals in Plymouth, Rochester, Owatonna and St. Cloud. by Yvette Higgins   A huge festival in celebration of Somali culture will take over four blocks of Lake Street on Saturday, June 28, with food, live music, dancing and family fun. The theme of this year’s Somali Week festival is midnimo, which means “unity” in Somali. “The theme for this event is to bring people together to celebrate our differences, but to also celebrate our similarities as one community,” said Daud Mohamed, executive director of People in Action, the nonprofit organization hosting Somali Week. Before the street festival on Saturday, Somali leaders from around the U.S. and Somalia will engage in a town hall discussion. Local and international Somali soccer teams are also participating in a multiday soccer tournament, which runs through July 2. Last year, more than 45,000 people attended the street festival on Lake Street, according to Mohamed. In past years people have come from around the world to enjoy Somali food, dancing and live music, which Mohamed said is remarkable. “Most important, the food is bonanza,” Mohamed said. “The…