Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said Sunday that US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents pulled over her son this weekend and asked him to prove his
citizenship.
In an interview with WCCO, a CBS affiliate based in Minneapolis, the Somali-born
congresswoman said she’s feared for her 20-year-old son since President Donald
Trump and ICE began targeting Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities area earlier
this month.
“Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by ICE
agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,”
Omar, a refugee from Somalia, told WCCO’s Esme Murphy.
Since descending on Minnesota, home of the largest Somali community in the US,
ICE agents have detained several US citizens, according to local officials and
video evidence. The operation, “Metro Surge,” has prompted area residents to
begin carrying around their passports and even avoid going outside, according to
The New York Times. This includes Omar’s son, who “always carries” his passport
with him, the four-term congresswoman told Murphy.
The incident described by Omar occurred one day after she announced that she was
launching two formal inquiries into the Trump administration’s “escalating
attacks on Somali communities in Minnesota and across the country,” her website
reads. In a December 12 letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem and ICE acting director Todd Lyons, Omar wrote that “constituents,
advocates, and local officials have documented blatant racial profiling, an
egregious level of unnecessary force, and activity that appears designed for
social media rather than befitting a law enforcement agency.”
> “I kept calling to see if he was okay, if he had any run-ins, and he wasn’t
> answering,” Omar told WCCO.
Among other questions, Omar wants Noem and Lyons to answer: “How many arrests
were the result of judicial warrants?” “How can the public report potential
violations of constitutional rights, and how will those be investigated?” and
“How is ICE ensuring due process protections while a large volume of new
officers are on the ground?”
Amid a barrage of xenophobic remarks about Somali people in recent weeks,
President Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar, who arrived in the US as a refugee
in the 1990s and became a citizen in 2000. These attacks go back to Trump’s
first term, when Omar was first elected to Congress.
“She’s garbage,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting December 2. “Her friends
are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s
go, come on, let’s make this place great.” In that meeting, the president also
said that Somalia “stinks” and that immigrants from the country “come from hell
and they complain and do nothing but bitch.” “We don’t want them in our
country,” he said multiple times.
At a Pennsylvania rally this past Tuesday night, Trump called Somalia “about the
worst country in the world” and mocked Omar. “I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever
the hell her name is, with the little turban. I love her, she comes in, does
nothing but bitch,” he said. “She should get the hell out, throw her the hell
out,” Trump continued as his supporters chanted “GET HER OUT!”
In her interview on Sunday, Omar said ICE had previously entered a local mosque
where her son prays, before leaving without making any arrests last Friday. Omar
said that throughout that day she was watching videos of ICE stops in the same
neighborhood as the mosque.
“I kept calling to see if he was okay, if he had any run-ins, and he wasn’t
answering,” Omar told WCCO. “Eventually, that night I did get a chance to talk
to him and I had to remind him just how worried I am.”