Rep. Ilhan Omar, a longtime member of the “Squad,” told WCCO that her son was stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday while heading home from Target. The agent group pulled him over, asked for his documents, and let him go once he produced his passport.
She added that her son always carries his passport as a precaution. The incident unfolded amid a broad ICE crackdown in Minnesota, spurred by a $1 billion fraud scandal that has plagued the state. President Trump seized on the scandal, noting that Somali residents were involved and warning the nation that “we don’t want them.”
Omar also claims ICE had previously entered a mosque where her son and others were praying before exiting, and she worries that the agency is targeting young men who resemble Somalis—an accusation of racial profiling. She said that the men in these “areas” could easily be caught in ICE’s sweep.
Born in Somalia and immigrating to the United States in the mid‑1990s, Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000. She has been a frequent target of President Trump’s attacks, with the Republican leader calling her “garbage.”
She blames Minnesota’s fraud debacle on weak safeguards around social‑safety‑net programs.
Omar publicly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration push in her home state. On X she declared that “Operation Metro Surge is state‑sanctioned racial profiling used as a tool of political intimidation,” adding that Somali Minnesotans are “brave and resilient,” and that they “don’t cower to bullies.”
She then wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, accusing officials in Minnesota of “blatant racial profiling” and “an egregious level of unnecessary force.”
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Minnesota is home to about 107,000 Somalis—the largest concentration in any state. Omar estimates that over 90 % of Somalis in the United States hold citizenship.
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