(The Hill) – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said her son, a U.S.-born citizen, was targeted by ICE agents on Saturday after he stopped at a Target store.
She said her son was pulled over but then was allowed to move on after he provided his 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,” she said during an interview on WCCO, CBS’s Minnesota station, on Sunday.
She added that her son regularly brings his passport with him in case he gets pulled over by ICE.
Omar and President Trump have been battling over Minnesota’s population of Somalian immigrants, with Trump calling Somalians “garbage” and increasing ICE agent presence in the state in an operation called “Operation Metro Surge” earlier this month.
“I think she’s very bad for our country. All she does is complain, complain, complain, she comes out of a country [that] has no government, they have no military, they have no police, they don’t have a country,” Trump said of Omar during a press conference on Friday.
“She comes over here and tells the United States of America how it should be run. We don’t wanna hear from her. I don’t wanna hear from her. There’s nothing worse than a person that comes in and does nothing but b***h and comes from a place where she shouldn’t be telling us what to do,” he added.
Omar said that the increased ICE presents in Minnesota is a threat to U.S.-born Somalians like her son.
“I had to remind him [her son] just how worried I am because all of these areas they’re talking about are areas where he can possibly find himself in and they are racially profiling,” the Minnesota representative said.
“They are looking for young men who look Somali, that they think are undocumented. My son was born here so was the young man that was harassed. ”
In a press release, ICE said it had detained more than 400 people on Friday in Minnesota. It said those detained included “pedophiles, rapists and violent thugs.”
“Tim Walz and Jacob Frey failed to protect the people of Minnesota,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, referring to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Most Somalians in Minnesota are either US citizens or are permanent residents in the country, The Minnesota Daily reported.