The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday of demonizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a “PR stunt” after the congresswoman claimed ICE stopped her son.
“ICE has absolutely ZERO record of its officers or agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son,” DHS said in a statement on X/Twitter. “With no evidence, it is shameful that Congresswoman Omar would level accusations to demonize ICE as part of a PR stunt.
“Allegations that ICE engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity. Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests.”
The congresswoman made her claim during an interview with CBS Minnesota affiliate WCCO on Sunday.
“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,” she said.
She also claimed ICE entered the mosque where her son prayed.
Although they “didn’t do anything,” Omar said she “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.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to Omar’s claims by stating ICE acts with the “utmost professionalism.”
“Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals are simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens,” she said in a statement.
Trump's comments on Somali immigrants in the US
White House border czar Tom Homan denied earlier this month that ICE had stepped up its deportation campaign in the Minneapolis-St. Paul responded to Trump's comments about Somali immigrants, whom the president called "garbage" that should be removed from the country.
"It's completely disgusting," Omar told the CBS ‘Face the Nation’ program following Trump’s comments. "These are Americans that he is calling garbage, and we feel like there is an unhealthy obsession that he has on the Somali community and an unhealthy and creepy obsession that he has with me."
About 80,000 Somalis live in Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities metro region. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said the vast majority are US citizens.
Most Somalis born outside the US came as refugees from Somalia's brutal, decades-long civil war, which triggered an exodus of more than 1 million people starting in 1991. The US began issuing visas to Somali refugees in 1992.