ICE, Ilhan Omar and Somalis: UNpacking Trump’s obsession with Minnesota 

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been sprayed with a foul-smelling liquid during a town hall she was hosting on Tuesday. A man rushed towards the stage and targeted her as she criticised immigration enforcement actions.

Omar was not injured in the attack. “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she told the crowd.

“I learned at a young age you don’t give in to threats,” Omar added.

While the motivation for the man’s attack on Omar is so far unknown, the Somalia-born congresswoman has long been the target of threats of violence. Many of those threats have been from strangers, but Omar has also been the repeated target of United States President Donald Trump’s ire.

And in recent weeks, Trump has extended hostile rhetoric to all Somali Americans and Somalia while his administration has launched its most severe crackdown on immigrants yet in the state of Minnesota, centred on the city of Minneapolis, which Omar represents in the US House of Representatives. In the past three weeks, federal officers have shot dead two US citizens who were protesting against the crackdown, which in turn further inflamed tensions in the state.

So what happened on Tuesday, and what’s behind Trump’s fixation with Omar, Somalis and Minnesota?

What happened at Omar’s event?

Omar was attacked in Minneapolis on Tuesday when a man rushed towards the stage during her town hall and sprayed her with an unknown liquid using a syringe, according to police and video footage.

The incident occurred as Omar was criticising federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, singling out the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“ICE cannot be reformed. It cannot be rehabilitated. We must abolish ICE for good, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said to applause shortly before the attack.

The man, identified as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was sitting in the front row when he stood up and ran towards the podium. Omar took a few steps towards him with her hand raised before he was tackled, restrained by security and arrested.

In a statement, Omar’s office said she continued the event after the disruption. “During her town hall, an agitator tried to attack the congresswoman by spraying an unknown substance with a syringe,” the statement said. “She continued with her town hall, because she doesn’t let bullies win.”

The crowd cheered as the man was pinned to the floor and his hands were tied behind his back. In video footage, someone in the audience can be heard saying, “Oh, my God, he sprayed something on her.”

Authorities have not publicly identified the substance, but witnesses described a strong, unpleasant odour.

The incident took place within an hour of Trump, a Republican, mentioning the Democrat during a speech in Iowa.

Who is Ilhan Omar?

Omar came to the US as a child refugee from Somalia.

She was born in Mogadishu and her family fled the country in 1991 when Somalia descended into prolonged cycles of clan-based violence, famine and attacks by the armed group al-Shabab, all of which continue to destabilise the Horn of Africa.

After spending four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, her family was granted resettlement in the US state of Virginia. They later moved to Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali communities in the country.

Minnesota has an estimated 80,000 people of Somali origin. A majority of them were born in the US. Of those who were born outside the country, 87 percent are naturalised citizens.

Since November, Trump has repeatedly attacked Somalia and its diaspora while also keeping a focus on Omar.

How has Trump targeted Somalis?

On November 21, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was “immediately” terminating temporary protected status (TPS) for Somali immigrants in Minnesota, referring to a programme designed to provide emergency refuge for people whose countries are in crisis. About 705 Somalis were on that programme.

Without providing evidence, Trump claimed that “Somali gangs are terrorising the people of that great State” and accused Governor Tim Walz, without proof, of overseeing a state that had become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.

“Send them back to where they came from,” Trump said. “It’s OVER!”

In early December, Trump told reporters that he did not want Somali immigrants in the US, claiming that residents of the East African country “contributed nothing” to the US while relying on aid. Trump did not provide any evidence to support these claims.

He called Somali immigrants “garbage“.

His language against Somalis has been widely criticised as racist, including by some members of his Republican Party. But that hasn’t stopped Trump.

Speaking to reporters in December, he said Somalia “isn’t even a country” and the nation “doesn’t function”.

At the start of January, the Trump administration froze childcare payments in Minnesota during an investigation into alleged fraud that the president has insisted revolves around benefits for Somali immigrants.

Trump also took his attacks against Somalis to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he spoke last week.

“We’re cracking down on more than $19bn in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits,” he said. “Can you believe that? Somalia – they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say these are low-IQ people. How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?”

How is Trump targeting Minnesota and why?

Officially, Trump has justified his administration’s crackdown in Minnesota as aimed at undocumented immigrants whom he has blamed, without evidence, for disproportionately contributing to crime and fraud.

But even by the standards of ICE operations in multiple cities and states across the country, the nature and duration of the violence unleashed by its officers and the officers of other federal agencies, such as Border Patrol, on the streets of Minnesota appear unmatched, according to several observers.

On January 7, Renee Nicole Good, a 34-year-old woman, was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis while she was trying to drive her car away from officers. The Trump administration claimed the officer fired in self-defence, but video evidence has raised questions about that account.

Then, on Saturday, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by federal agents while he was helping a woman pushed down on the street by officers. Trump administration officials claimed Pretti had brandished a handgun and was threatening officers, but video footage showed that he did not have a weapon in his hand at the time when he was shot.

On January 13 after Good had been killed, Trump lashed out at Minnesota’s Democratic leadership. While referring to the “GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA” in a Truth Social post, he also issued a blunt warning: “THE DAY OF RETRIBUTION & RECKONING IS COMING.”

Governor Walz was quick to pick up on Trump’s comments and accuse him of choosing to “punish” the state because it had voted against him in the past three presidential elections.

Apart from Illinois, Minnesota is the only Upper Midwestern state that Trump failed to win even once in his three bids for the presidency in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Walz himself was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate in 2024, running against Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

What’s Trump’s history of attacking Ilhan Omar?

In April 2019, Trump falsely accused Omar of downplaying the September 11, 2001, attacks. After his post on X against Omar, the newly elected member of the House of Representatives witnessed a spike in death threats.

Three months later, as he launched his re-election bid for the 2020 election, Trump accused Omar of being ungrateful towards the US as his supporters chanted, “Send her back!”

Since then, he has repeatedly targeted Omar over her headscarf, her Somali background and her persistent criticism of his policies.

“She’s an incompetent person. She’s a real terrible person,” Trump said in December, claiming without evidence that Omar “hates everybody” and is anti-Semitic.

Omar has in turn described Trump’s apparent “obsession” with her as “creepy”.