Rep. Ilhan Omar claims ICE targeted her son amid Trump’s crackdown on Somali community

Rep. Ilhan Omar has revealed federal immigration agents stopped her son in Minnesota over the weekend and questioned his citizenship.

The Democrat, who has famously clashed with Trump over his immigration stance, said the encounter reflects heightened enforcement that has disproportionately affected the state’s Somali community.

Omar said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled her son over on Saturday after he stopped at a Target store and released him only after he produced his US passport.

‘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 WCCO radio.

Omar said her 20-year-old son routinely carries his passport as a precaution.

She also claimed ICE agents previously entered a mosque where her son and others were praying before leaving without making arrests.

The congresswoman said the encounters come on the back of a major fraud investigation involving social service programs.

President Donald Trump has publicly cited the case and has linked it to members of the Somali community, remarks Omar says have fueled fear and profiling.

Rep. Ilhan Omar said federal immigration agents stopped her son in Minnesota over the weekend and questioned his citizenship

Ilhan Omar, left, claims her son Adnan was pulled over by ICE agents on Saturday and only released after he pulled out his US passport

Immigrations, Customs, and Enforcement officers question a man’s immigration status on Lake Street near a Somali mall called the Karmel Mall in Minnesota

‘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,’ Omar said.

Omar, who was born in Somalia and became a US citizen in 2000, has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire.

She rejected suggestions that the fraud case reflects broader wrongdoing within the Somali community, instead blaming insufficient oversight of state safety-net programs.

In a post on X, Omar criticized what she described as politically motivated enforcement.

‘Operation Metro Surge is state-sanctioned racial profiling used as a tool of political intimidation,’ she wrote. ‘But Somali Minnesotans aren’t intimidated, we’re brave and resilient, and our neighbors have our back. We don’t cower to bullies.’

Omar has signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons accusing federal agents of ‘blatant racial profiling’ and ‘an egregious level of unnecessary force’ during operations in Minnesota.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the United States, with about 107,000 residents of Somali origin, according to US Census Bureau data.

Rep. Ilhan Omar is seen in Washington DC last week. The Trump Administration is reviewing allegations against Omar going back to a 2020 article, and claims that Homeland Security officials say they are examining regarding supposed immigration fraud

Ahmed Hirsi, left, the ex-husband of Ilhan Omar is pictured with his son Adnan in 2023

Ilhan Omar, her husband Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, and their children are seen in one of Omar’s Facebook photos from January 2019

Activists confronted a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the largely Somali neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis last week

Demonstrators rally in protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid a reported federal immigration operation targeting the Somali community, in Minneapolis

Omar has estimated that ‘over 90 percent’ of Somalis in the US are citizens.

Earlier this month Trump labeled Minnesota Somalis as ‘garbage’ and said he didn’t want them in the US saying ‘they contribute nothing.’

He also blamed Democratic Governor Tim Walz for allowing alleged fraud in government programs to happen on his watch, which a conservative publication claimed was funneling money to a Somali militant group.

During a rally in Pennsylvania last week Trump went on to further disparage Somalia as ‘filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.’

During a rally in Pennsylvania last week Trump went on to further disparage Somalia as ‘filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime’

‘We had a meeting and I said, “Why is it we only take people from shithole countries,” right? `Why can´t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?´’ Trump told rallygoers.

‘But we always take people from Somalia,’ he continued. ‘Places that are a disaster. Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.’

Omar has accused Trump of having ‘an unhealthy obsession’ with the community and on her personally.