Representative Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unknown liquid by a man who approached her during a town hall in North Minneapolis on Tuesday (Jan. 27). The town hall was announced earlier to update the general public on the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations going on in the city that have led to widespread protests by citizens.
The attack was captured on video.
The man was tackled by Omar’s security, who pinned him to the ground, but he continued to shout at her. Omar continued with her speech, referencing the growing call for the impeachment of current Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Omar approached the man, ready to defend herself before security intervened.
“We will continue! These f—ing assh—s are not gonna get away with this!” Omar told those in attendance after the man was escorted out. “Here is the reality, people like this ugly man don’t understand — we are Minnesota Strong. We’ll stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”
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After the town hall, Omar shared her thoughts on the incident with CNN reporter Sara Snider. Snider was on the ground Saturday when tear gas from ICE and Border Patrol agents was deployed in her direction.
“I feel OK,” Omar told Snider. “I feel that it is important for people, whether they are in elected office or not, to allow these people to intimidate us. To make us not fight for our constituents and for the country we love.”
She added, “As I said, I’ve survived war. And I’m definitely going to survive intimidation or whatever these people think they can throw at me. Cause I’m built that way.”
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Omar, who has been a target of attacks by President Donald Trump for years, has seen prior incidents of harassment against her and her family. Earlier this month, her son was pulled over by ICE in another episode of “racial profiling.”
“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,” Omar told “WCCO Sunday Morning” on December 15.
Somali men, women and children have been a target of Trump’s attacks in recent months as Omar believes the entirety of ICE’s presence in Minnesota is due to Trump’s disdain for them and the unfounded belief that Somalians are responsible for millions of dollars in fraud, a theory that Trump and others have amplified on social media.
“I know that he is deflecting from the failures of his presidency. He’d rather scapegoat us than answer for why people can’t afford their lives [and] why he has not fulfilled his promise of creating a more affordable area,” the U.S. congresswoman said of the president. “What does he do when he doesn’t want to really answer the question about the failures of his administration? He cues the bigotry, and we know this playbook.”
