Fox News personality Tomi Lahren has attacked Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar by labelling her “the perfect poster child for why we need a closed border.”
Co-hosting The Big Weekend Show on Sunday, Lahren reacted angrily to a clip of the progressive congresswoman – who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, but became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at the age of 17 – rebuking ICE’s immigration crackdown.
“The one place where we thought we would never experience this is the U.S. Goddamn States,” Omar said at a field hearing on immigration in St Paul, Friday.
In response, Lahren sneered: “Well, listen, I actually have to thank Congresswoman Ilhan Omar because she has served as the perfect poster child for why we need a closed border and why we need to stop importing people from third-world countries who have no respect for this country, no respect for our laws and those who enforce them.”
The pundit went on to cite another Democrat, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who, she pointed out, had pledged last week to strip ICE agents of their driver’s licenses if he becomes the state’s next governor, referring to the federal officials as “a**holes.”
“Democrats are always on the side of the illegal aliens,” Lahren claimed. “They want the illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses, but they want to take the driver’s license from ICE agents who are enforcing federal immigration law.”
The same clip of Omar’s comments attracted widespread condemnation from MAGA Republicans when it was posted on X (Twitter) by the Rapid Response 47 account, with far-right activist Laura Loomer demanding: “Deport this Muslim.”
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee also expressed outrage at her remark, prompting Elon Musk to suggest she be tried for treason.
Disgraced former New York congressman George Santos chimed in: “I served in Congress with Ilhan Omar and I am able to state with a clear mind and without reservations that her priorities have always been the Somalis in MN, she has no love or allegiance to the United States.
“Ilhan has and will always be an immigrant whom has ill will towards the United States. I call her the enemy within and Congress and the DOJ should treat her the same.”
Omar has long been a hate figure to conservatives, notably causing outrage last June when she criticized the ICE surge into Los Angeles by saying, “I grew up in a dictatorship and I don’t even remember ever witnessing anything like that.
“To have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the, you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets without any regard for people’s constitutional rights, while our president’s spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade, it is really shocking.
“And it should be a wake up call for all Americans to say this is not the country we were born in, this is not the country we believe in, this is not the country our founding fathers imagined, and this is not the country that is supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values, and we should all collectively be out in the streets rejecting what is taking place this week.”
Tensions continue to flare in Omar’s state in the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother of three shot dead by agent Jonathan Ross on the streets of Minneapolis earlier this month.
Trump has sent 3,000 ICE agents into Minnesota in the latest instalment of his crackdown on undocumented migrants, but the fatal shooting of Good has led to an explosion of protests against the operation, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey demanding the troops “get the f*** out” of his city.
President Donald Trump last week threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to restore order, while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has placed the National Guard on standby.
The Department of Justice announced Friday it is investigating Frey and Walz for allegedly impeding federal law enforcement.
“We will not be intimidated by the actions of this federal government,” Frey told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, describing his city as “under siege” and branding the probe “ridiculous.”
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