Rep. Ilhan Omar: ICE’s 'Operation Metro Surge' Is Weaponizing Fear Against Immigrants

Masked, armed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been stopping people of color and demanding identification. Media accounts and eyewitness reports say U.S. citizens have been detained, bystanders who attempted to intervene were met with pepper spray and threats, and families were left without answers about where loved ones were taken or why.

Operation 'Metro Surge' illustrates how far ICE will go to intimidate communities in Minnesota. What is presented as enforcement, Omar argues, is cruelty masquerading as policy.

Historical Context and Patterns

This is not a scene from a distant chapter of American history; it is Minnesota in 2025. But for many immigrant communities, the tactics are painfully familiar. Japanese Americans were interned during World War II, Muslim Americans faced heightened surveillance after Sept. 11, 2001, and Jewish refugees were turned away when fleeing genocide. Other immigrant groups — Italians, the Irish and more — have faced demonizing stereotypes in past eras.

Omar contends that the current pattern is the same playbook: weaponize fear, cast suspicion broadly, and target whole communities. She cites recent public remarks by the president denigrating immigrants and specifically calling Somalis 'filthy' and 'ridden with crime,' and says those attacks widen the net of suspicion to anyone who appears to be an immigrant — in practice, anyone who is not white.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) walks towards the U.S. Capitol Building on Dec. 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C.Andrew harnik/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Policy Moves and Their Impact

Omar criticizes administration actions that, she asserts, removed protections and created vulnerability: stripping Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and humanitarian parole for thousands, restricting asylum processing, and halting renewals of work permits and parole for people from certain countries. She says these moves effectively render many long-standing residents vulnerable to detention and deportation.

Reported Incidents

Recent, specific incidents cited include:

• A Somali man seized while on his lunch break despite customers shouting that he was a U.S. citizen; agents allegedly ignored those warnings, transported him to a federal facility, and later released him with instructions to walk home through snow after acknowledging they had no lawful basis to detain him.
• A Somali woman taken from downtown Minneapolis, mocked for wearing a hijab and held for 24 hours until her family demonstrated that a U.S. passport should protect her as a citizen.
• A 55-year-old White neighbor who stepped outside to observe armed agents on her block was reportedly shoved to the ground, arrested, shackled and held for four hours before being released without charges.

Omar frames these events not as targeted immigration enforcement but as collective punishment and political intimidation: a message that dissent and community solidarity will be punished.

Values and Resolve

Omar emphasizes that immigrants deeply love and value democratic institutions: the rule of law, due process and the promise that diversity strengthens the nation. She recalls her grandfather taking her to Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor caucuses as a teen, instilling a sense of civic responsibility and community protection.

"No matter how hard this president tries to weaponize fear, he cannot extinguish our love for this country," Omar writes. "Somali Minnesotans will not be intimidated into silence."

The piece closes as a defiant affirmation that immigrants and multiracial communities will continue to fight for inclusion, democracy and the American promise.

Note: This article reflects the views and reporting cited by Rep. Ilhan Omar and includes accounts reported in local and national media.