Ilhan Omar: Undocumented Somali Migrants Are Rare in Minnesota as ICE Readies Twin Cities Operation

Ilhan Omar: Most Somali Residents Are Citizens, She Says

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Thursday that only a small number of Somali residents in Minnesota lack legal status, stressing that the majority arrived as refugees and subsequently obtained permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. Her comments came as a New York Times report indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning an "intensive immigration enforcement operation" across the Twin Cities.

Speaking on the "Native Land Pod" podcast, Omar defended her community amid recent scrutiny tied to reports that linked several alleged fraud schemes to individuals associated with Somali groups in the state. She emphasized that many in the community — including herself — are documented immigrants or citizens.

"[ICE agents] are being met with people who are showing them that they are citizens, and they're having a really hard time and making fools of themselves trying to find a noncitizen or somebody who is undocumented in our community because that is like a needle in a haystack," Omar said.

Omar added that most Somali arrivals came with refugee status, which typically includes initial documentation, a path to a green card within about a year, and naturalization within five years for many. "A majority of us came to the United States with a refugee status... and we have the highest number of immigrants of any kind in the United States when it comes to achieving that citizenship," she said.

Fox News Digital reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment about the reported operation.

Fraud Investigation and Local Scrutiny

Separately, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced an investigation into a network of Somali-affiliated groups in Minnesota that it says are connected to an alleged large-scale COVID-related fraud scheme. The SBA indicated the alleged scandal raises questions about oversight and auditing practices, and critics have suggested it points to systemic failures within state-level audit processes overseen by Governor Tim Walz's office.

Omar On Rapid COVID Programs And Political Backlash

On CNN's "The Lead," anchor Jake Tapper asked Omar why the situation had "become so out of control" in Minnesota. She attributed some problems to the rapid rollout of emergency COVID programs that relied on third parties and, she said, lacked sufficient safeguards: "A lot of the COVID programs that were set up — they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created."

Omar has also been responding to personal attacks from former President Donald Trump, who recently called her and other Somali migrants "garbage" and suggested some should return to their countries of origin. Omar described the attacks as dehumanizing and, in a guest essay for the New York Times, argued that the rhetoric amounted to bigotry amid policy failures.

"The president’s dehumanizing and dangerous attacks on minority immigrant communities are nothing new," she wrote, urging a focus on policy solutions rather than personal attacks.