Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) claimed that officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement pulled over her son on Saturday and requested identification, though they left without incident.
“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 told a Minnesota radio station.
Omar, who is Somali American, also said that a week before the traffic stop, ICE officers were at a mosque where her son was praying but left without incident. Omar added that her son “always” carries his passport just in case he is stopped by federal immigration officers.
News of the traffic stop comes as immigration enforcement has been ramped up in Minnesota as part of what the Department of Homeland Security has dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.”
ICE officers have insisted they are not “targeting” Somalis in the operation, with the DHS recently touting arrests of more than 400 illegal immigrants from various countries.
But President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric against the Somali community, which has been under scrutiny over a massive financial fraud scandal that is being investigated by the Treasury Department.
That has included him directly calling out Omar, including at a speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday about affordability.
“I love this Ilhan Omar,” Trump said. “Whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch. She’s always complaining.”
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Omar has hit back at the president for what she called his “unhealthy obsession” with the Minnesota Somali community.
In the radio interview on Sunday, she suggested Trump is trying to distract from issues of affordability and the Epstein files by fixating his attention on Somalis and the fraud case.
