“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar claimed her son was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday to probe his citizenship.
“Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” Omar (D-Minn.) told WCCO, a local radio station.
She noted that her son “always carries” his passport as a precaution.
ICE’s alleged questioning of her son took place amid the agency’s crackdown in Minnesota, which was inspired by a $1 billion fraud scandal that had roiled the state.
President Trump harped on the fact that the massive fraud scandal involves members of the Somali community and has railed against their presence in the US, insisting “we don’t want them.”
In addition to the Saturday incident, Omar claims ICE previously went into a mosque where her son and others were praying, before exiting.
“I had to remind him just how worried I am, because all of these areas that they are talking about are areas where he could possibly find himself in and they are racially profiling, they are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented,” she added.
Omar was born in Somalia but immigrated to the US in the mid-1990s, becoming a US citizen in 2000. She has since become a favorite target of President Trump, with the Republican calling her “garbage.”
She has blamed the fraud scandal in Minnesota on a failure to put up sufficient guardrails on social safety net programs in the state.
The Minnesota Democrat has also denounced the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in her home state.
“Operation Metro Surge is state-sanctioned racial profiling used as a tool of political intimidation,” she posted on X Sunday. “But Somali Minnesotans aren’t intimidated, we’re brave and resilient, and our neighbors have our back.”
“We don’t cower to bullies.”
The “Squad” rep inked a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, accusing agents of “blatant racial profiling” and “an egregious level of unnecessary force” in her home state.
The Post reached out to ICE for comment.
Minnesota is home to about 107,000 Somalis, more than any other state in the country, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
Omar estimates that “over 90%” of Somalis in the US are citizens.
