More than a million Muslims from around the world travel to Saudi Arabia each year to perform the multiday ritual of the Hajj or for shorter pilgrimages known as Umrah.
But those traveling from the U.S., including members of Minnesota’s Somali community, say the Trump administration’s travel bans, along with increased scrutiny at the border, have made all international travel, including this core spiritual journey, more challenging.
Muslim advocacy and traveling organizations have seen an increase in requests for legal guidance on international travel, including on performing Hajj. And the calls for deportations and stories of detainments at the border have created new fears in the community.
“Because of immigration laws and Operation Metro Surge, a lot of people, especially in the Somali community or the larger Muslim community, have opted not to leave,” said Zakariye Nur, of the Minnesota branch of Dar El Salam, the longest running Umrah and Hajj travel agency in the country. Umrah are shorter pilgrimages separate from the Hajj season.
There is a real fear that even U.S. citizens and legal immigrants could be detained or face trouble at the border, he said.
“We’ve received calls from citizens, green card holders, and visa holders alike,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director at CAIR-MN. He said CAIR was doing its best to keep up with the “evolving landscape” of travel rules.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, signifying its importance in the faith. It is an essential religious duty for Muslims, who are required to undertake this journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, provided they are physically and financially able.
Mahamed Rage Mahamed, who started the local Ummah Travels in May 2025 after completing his own Umrah pilgrimage, said “Many families were afraid, when our city was assaulted by ICE.”
The influx of federal agents detaining immigrants off the street promoted “rumors, if they go, they will be in trouble and not be able to come back.”
Ummah Travels had trips for Umrah lined up between Feb. 17 to March 19, which was the holy period of Ramadan. Due to Operation Metro Surge, however, Mahamed was forced to cancel all of them.
Another travel agency serving Minnesota’s Somali community has also been affected by the Trump administration’s travel and immigration restrictions.
“My customer base has declined significantly due to international travel fears among non-citizen Muslims,” said Ibrahim Ahmed Hassan, the owner of Wamo Travel Services located at the Somali 24 Mall in south Minneapolis.
Online frustrations
During Hajj, the Saudi government coordinates with predominantly East African countries, offering a specific number of pilgrim visas, said Imam Abdirizak Hashi of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis. He has guided pilgrims on the Hajj since 2004. The introduction of the Nusuk Hajj online platform has led to significant confusion regarding the visa process.
“It has created significant barriers for those looking to fulfill their spiritual obligations,” he said. “The Nusuk program, while designed to streamline the visa process, has been criticized for its high costs, making it prohibitively expensive for many would-be pilgrims.”
It is a shift toward individual Nusuk visas, which diverge from the traditional group travel arrangements that many prefer, the imam said.
Hassan Abdi, a Woodbury resident, said he has tried to perform Hajj for the past three years through the online Nusuk platform. He said the Nusuk platform is unreliable for pilgrims from Western countries and has made the process feel like an impossible lottery. “Trust in the system is lacking,” the University of Minnesota graduate said. “It’s a mess and wasted my time.”
Ibrahim Ahmed Hassan said many local pilgrims travel to their origin countries first, then they travel to Hajj using visas from those countries. Costs from those countries are also often less expensive.
Even that route faces limits. The Hajj authorities in Somalia recently limited to 50 the size of the group of pilgrims Mahamed could arrange entry to Saudi Arabia through that country. And Hassan Abdi left Somalia very young and doesn’t have connections to Somalia. “I am not ready to travel to Somalia and that’s not part of my plan” he said. “It’s really challenging and I don’t know what to do.”
Overcoming the costs
The costs of making the pilgrimage can often top thousands of dollars.
Mahamed’s own journey to Mecca is one of the reasons he started his travel agency; he wanted to help other Somali Minnesotans find affordable travel.
“This is not about profit. This is about making sure that folks get [this] experience,” Mahamed said.
Shukri Mohamed, an Uber driver in Minneapolis, covered the travel expenses for himself and his 75-year-old mother, Sahara Abdullahi, for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage. He utilized the traditional Somali banking system. For the past three years, he and a group of friends have been preparing for the pilgrimage, each contributing monthly installments to create a total fund of $8,400.
This ancient saving method, known as hagbad or ayuuto — meaning “help” in Somali, with roots in the Italian word “aiuto” — is an interest-free rotating savings circle. Each participant pays a fixed amount into a pool that is then paid out to a different member each cycle, repeating until everyone receives their share.
“I know the ayuuto system very well and used it when we lived in the refugee camps in Kenya,” Sahara said. “I trust the ayuuto money [system] and it is interest-free.”
Spiritual and personal lessons
Hashi has been leading Hajj groups through Somalia the past five years and notes more are now following the model.
The imam emphasizes the transformative aspects of Hajj and its lasting effects on the spiritual lives of the pilgrims. “You cannot imagine how people’s lives transformed to the better after they performed Hajj,” he said.
Sheikh Dahir Abdullahi, one of the 24 mosque leaders at the mall, expressed his long-standing desire to go on the Hajj pilgrimage, a dream he has had since childhood. Now at 66, he reflects on the challenges of performing Hajj as an elderly person.
“It’s a struggle for someone my age,” he said while urging others in Western countries who are able to do so while they are still young and healthy. “What are they waiting for?” he asked.
“During my experiences with Hajj and Umrah,” Hashi said. “I learned valuable lessons in patience, self-control, and time management, as every ritual is meticulously timed and numbered.”
“At Hajj,” Dahir said, “the rich and the poor stand equal, sharing the same food, wearing similar clothes, and sleeping in the same places.”
Ultimately, they agreed that Hajj serves as a profound exercise in self-discipline, patience, and humility.
