Ilhan Omar

📞 (202) 225-4731

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Key Figures

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, rushed the stage at Rep. Ilhan Omar's Minneapolis town hall on January 27, 2026 and sprayed an unknown liquid on her using a syringe. The substance was later determined to be non-toxic. Hours before the attack, Trump had held a rally in Iowa making derogatory remarks about Somalis and other immigrants, mentioning Omar by name. Omar said the attacker "was specifically upset that Trump's order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations." She stated: "Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community I represent, my death threats skyrocket." Trump responded by accusing Omar of staging the attack, telling ABC News: "I think she's a fraud. She probably had herself sprayed."

At a White House cabinet meeting on December 2, 2025, President Trump called Somali immigrants "garbage" four times in seven seconds and said "We don't want 'em in our country" five times about the 260,000 Americans of Somali descent. Trump said Somali Americans "come from hell" and "contribute nothing," claiming they do "nothing but bitch" and "their country stinks." He called Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American congresswoman, "garbage" directly. Trump also revived his "shithole countries" characterization of immigrant-sending nations. On December 9-10, he called for "a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia." These remarks came weeks before an attacker sprayed Omar at a Minneapolis town hall on January 27, 2026 — specifically angered, according to Omar, that Trump's deportations of Somalis were not happening fast enough.

Rep. Lauren Boebert made Islamophobic remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar, including a story implying Omar might be a suicide bomber and references to the jihad squad. The attack targeted a Muslim member of Congress through terrorism tropes and helped normalize anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric inside Congress.

On November 20, 2021, at a campaign event in Pueblo, Colorado, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) describes a fabricated story of encountering Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — a Muslim congresswoman and Somali-born U.S. citizen — in a Capitol elevator, saying: "Well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine." Boebert claims she told Omar: "Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today." The joke equates Omar, a congresswoman and U.S. citizen, with a suicide bomber based on her religion. A video of the speech is posted on November 25, 2021, triggering national condemnation. Omar calls Boebert a "buffoon" and says on Twitter that the interaction never happened, that Boebert "looks down when she sees me at the Capitol," and that "saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter." Boebert issues an apology on Twitter on November 26, 2021 but refuses to apologize to Omar directly by phone, prompting Omar to hang up. FBI data documents that threats against Muslim members of Congress spike following the exchange. House Democratic leaders call for House Republican leadership Kevin McCarthy to discipline Boebert; McCarthy declines to do so.

President Biden signed Executive Order 13993 on his first day in office, revoking Trump's EO 13768 and directing DHS to review all enforcement policies developed under it. Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske issued a separate memo the same day placing a 100-day pause on most interior deportations, pending a full agency review. The order instructed ICE to return to limited, prioritized enforcement and directed DHS to rescind the Kelly implementing memoranda that had driven 287(g) expansion.