Ilhan Omar Compares ICE Crackdowns to “Countries Like Somalia” — “I Never Thought I’d Experience This in the… United States”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., condemned the federal government’s immigration enforcement tactics on Friday, comparing what she described as aggressive operations in Minnesota to conditions in countries like Somalia—where she was born—and saying she never expected to witness anything similar in the United States.
Speaking during a Democratic field hearing in St. Paul titled, “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” Omar said she struggled to hold back profanity as she described her reaction to the current moment.
“I don’t want to curse, but those of us who escaped places like that, the one place where we thought we would never experience this is the U.S. [sic] god—-” states,” she said.
Omar argued the situation should be a national embarrassment, warning that the scenes are being watched globally and damaging America’s reputation abroad.
“And we should all be ashamed that it is the United States that is allowing for this to take place, and it is being… broadcast to the rest of the world, where people are calling and saying, ‘Are you sure this is America?’ I am ashamed, and we must do everything that we can to bring back the America we all escaped into,” she said.
Omar, whose district includes much of Minneapolis, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and its deployment of ICE agents amid intensified efforts targeting illegal immigration and fraud in Minnesota. She pointed to the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent as a turning point that has fueled public outrage and intensified scrutiny of federal operations, with critics alleging agents are using intimidating, heavy-handed tactics.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are already hosting roughly 3,000 federal agents who were deployed after a large fraud scandal shook the state late last year. President Donald Trump has also floated invoking the Insurrection Act in response to unrest, though he appeared to step back from that idea on Friday.
Omar’s remarks sparked immediate backlash from conservatives online, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who criticized her language in a post on X.
Lee wrote, “No member of Congress should ever refer to our country as the ‘U.S. G—— States.’ What should be the consequence of saying that?”
Billionaire Elon Musk responded, “Whatever the penalty is for treason,” referencing a charge that can carry the death penalty.
During the hearing, Omar also accused Republicans of being indifferent to what she described as an “occupation” affecting residents in Minneapolis and St. Paul—arguing that elected officials should help constituents regardless of party.
“When my constituents call for help, we don’t ask them who they voted for, because that is what it means to be an elected U.S. representative,” she said.
She then accused Republican lawmakers of accepting what she described as retaliatory federal action aimed at Minnesota.
“So it is appalling for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to be OK for the president to carry out retribution here in Minnesota,” she said.
Omar went further, alleging abuses that she said should be unacceptable in the United States, including detentions of American citizens and demands for documentation at checkpoints.
“It is appalling for our Republican colleagues to be OK for there to be cell detentions in ICE for American citizens,” she said. “It is appalling for them to be OK for there to be checkpoints in American cities where people are asked for their papers. And it is appalling for Americans to have to carry their citizen papers only to be told they are not sure those papers are correct.”
