Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and former refugee from Somalia, delivered an emotional denunciation of U.S. immigration enforcement practices on Friday, comparing recent federal actions to conditions she said she fled as a child.
Per FOX News, Omar, while speaking at a Democratic field hearing in St. Paul titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” expressed shock at witnessing what she described as aggressive government conduct inside the United States.
“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.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah criticized her language in a post on X, writing, “No member of Congress should ever refer to our country as the ‘U.S. G—— States.’ What should be the consequence of saying that?”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to Lee’s post, stating, “Whatever the penalty is for treason,” which under U.S. law can carry the most severe punishment.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and former refugee from Somalia, delivered an emotional denunciation of U.S. immigration enforcement practices on Friday, comparing recent federal actions to conditions she said she fled as a child.
Per FOX News, Omar, while speaking at a Democratic field hearing in St. Paul titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” expressed shock at witnessing what she described as aggressive government conduct inside the United States.
“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 said she believed the situation had damaged the country’s global standing and left Americans questioning their own identity.
“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.”
The congresswoman, whose district includes much of Minneapolis, has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, particularly the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during recent crackdowns targeting illegal immigration and fraud in Minnesota.
Her remarks came amid heightened tensions following the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, an incident that critics say underscores what they describe as increasingly forceful enforcement tactics.
Federal authorities have stationed roughly 3,000 agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul following a large-scale fraud investigation that surfaced late last year.
President Donald Trump has publicly raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to address unrest in the state, though he appeared to retreat from that position on Friday.
Omar’s comments quickly drew backlash from Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators online.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah criticized her language in a post on X, writing, “No member of Congress should ever refer to our country as the ‘U.S. G—— States.’ What should be the consequence of saying that?”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to Lee’s post, stating, “Whatever the penalty is for treason,” which under U.S. law can carry the most severe punishment.
Fox News Digital said it contacted the offices of both Omar and Lee for further comment.
Later in her remarks, Omar accused Republican lawmakers of tolerating what she characterized as extreme measures affecting residents of her district. She said GOP colleagues appeared untroubled by what she described as “an occupation that is terrorizing people in Minnesota that live in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”
“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,” Omar said. “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 continued: “It is appalling for our Republican colleagues to be OK for there to be cell detentions in ICE for American citizens. 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.”
THE THIRD FORCE
