A crowd of around 400 people gathered at Kennedy Park in Lewiston on Saturday afternoon to stand in solidarity with Somali Mainers. 

The scene was peaceful, but a current of anger ran through the crowd.

It was sparked by recent comments from President Donald Trump, wherein he called Somalis “garbage” whom he doesn’t want in the country. 

This, organizer and former Lewiston City Councilor Safiya Khalid said, is what drove her to take action.

“We are greater than hate and division,” Khalid told the Press Herald. “Somali Americans and families deserve safety, dignity and respect like any other human and any other American.” 

Khalid, who first came to the United States at age 6, was both the youngest person to serve on the Lewiston City Council and the first Somali-American to serve on the City Council when she was elected in 2018. 

Maine is home to thousands of Somali Americans, including immigrants and refugees seeking asylum, with much of the population concentrated in Lewiston.

Somali Americans are important to the Lewiston community, residents said.

Kris, a Lewiston resident who didn’t wish to share her last name, said the Somali community are her neighbors. 

“They’re mamas I’ve said ‘hey’ to, they’re kids that have been in my kitchen after school,” she told the Press Herald. “They have every right to be here.” 

According to Kris, two of her downstairs neighbors were recently taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and are now in a deportation center. 

They were in the country legally, she said. 

“They were grabbed,” Kris said. “I don’t want to see any more of my neighbors disappear.” 

Another Lewiston resident, Somali musician Hadithi Abdule, said he was at the rally in support of his community. 

He held a sign bearing the phrase “not a single Somali appears in the Epstein files,” a nod to records involving American child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

“We’re not garbage,” Abdule said. “We’re citizens, we’re hard workers and we’re part of the community.” 

Residents of other nearby Maine towns also showed their support at Saturday’s rally. 

Susan Rae-Reeves and Susan Coffin Babb, of Topsham, said they attended the rally because they are “horrified” at the rhetoric being used against Somali Americans. 

“The Somali community and other immigrant communities are simply enriching all of the communities of Maine in every way,” Rae-Reeves said. “I want to embrace all of them.” 

“No one should be in danger of losing their rights because of the color of their skin,” Coffin Babb added. “We’re all people and we need to stand up for each other. We’re neighbors.” 

Carolyn Tkach traveled from Brunswick to attend the rally. 

“The Somali people are being terrorized, and they deserve better,” she said. “I mean, my God.”

In the wake of President Trump’s “hateful rhetoric” about Somali Americans, Khalid said she felt love and inclusion from the Maine community on Saturday.

Trump has also targeted the Somalia diaspora in Minnesota with immigration enforcement actions and has said the state is a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” though there is little evidence supporting his claim, the Associated Press reported.

Somali Americans are woven into the state’s fabric, Khalid said, and no amount of hate can erase that.

“Let us send a message that is louder than hate and stronger than fear,” Khalid said. “We are home, we belong, and we are here to stay.”