Rep. Ilhan Omar said her son was pulled over by federal immigration officials over the weekend.
The Democratic representative from Minnesota told WCCO, Minneapolis’ CBS affiliate, that her son, Adnan Hisri, was pulled over by ICE agents on the previous day and asked to prove his citizenship at a Target store.
“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 said in the interview, which aired on Sunday.
Omar added that immigration agents had previously entered the mosque her family attends while her son was praying, but that he always keeps his passport with him in case he is stopped.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
Minneapolis is the Trump administration’s latest target in its immigration crackdown campaign. It comes after President Donald Trump used xenophobic language earlier this month during a Cabinet meeting to describe the state’s large Somali community as “garbage.” In his tirade, Trump also took direct aim at Omar, calling her “incompetent” and “terrible.” Omar last week sent letters to the Department of Homeland Security about the crackdown in Minneapolis, suggesting that “this surge came in direct response to Trump’s racist comments about Somali people, and about me in particular,” and about the decision to rescind temporary protected status for Somalis in the U.S. Omar said the Trump administration racially profiles in immigration raids and that “they are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented.” In an op-ed for MS NOW on Saturday, Omar wrote “the purpose of Trump’s immigration agenda: to make Black and Brown Americans, permanent residents, documented workers, international students, tourists and refugees all feel like they do not belong here, regardless of what the law says.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian. Recommended
