Ilhan Omar, Under Federal Immigration Probe, Brags a DHS Lawyer Called Minnesota's Immigrant Network 'Hard to Penetrate'

Rep. Ilhan Omar is under federal criminal investigation over her immigration history. Eight days before her reelection, the Minnesota Democrat went on stage in Minneapolis and bragged that a Homeland Security lawyer once told her team Minnesota has the one immigrant network his agency finds "hard to penetrate."

Her reaction to that warning? "We all looked at each other, you know, my staff and I, and we smiled," Omar said Monday night. "Somalis are not the people to mess with."

She said it at a sold-out event with Hasan Piker, the far-left Twitch streamer who once said "America deserved 9/11." Later in the same show, after Omar left, Piker called Republicans "terrorists." The whole night streamed live on Piker's own Twitch channel, and that recording is where every quote in this report comes from.

The network she was proud of

The event was called "I'm the Host Now!" It was hosted by state Sen. Omar Fateh, the democratic socialist who lost the 2025 Minneapolis mayor's race to Jacob Frey, at the 245-seat Theatre in the Round in the city's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, according to MPR News.

Omar laid out how the network was built. In November 2024, right after Trump won, she said "over 300 organizations came to meet in my office" to plan for mass deportations: how to "create the networks," share resources and "protect one another." Colleagues from California, Illinois and Maine, she said, keep asking her how it works.

Then came the meeting with Homeland Security early in Trump's second term. Omar said the department's attorney told her he had worked immigration cases in 25 or 30 states over two decades, and Minnesota was "the only state" with "a network that is hard to penetrate." She said her office had hosted "the extent of that network" two months earlier, "strategizing about, you know, what our response was going to be in case they targeted us."

It's like a coach bragging that the other team's scouts can't crack his playbook, except the other team is federal law enforcement. Strip away the warm words about mutual aid and Omar is describing a system built to make federal immigration enforcement harder, planned in a congressional office. And the congresswoman taking a bow for it is now the target of a federal immigration-fraud probe herself.

She also told the crowd that when agents came, Somalis "were putting their passports under their scarf" to make "a mockery" of the operation.

Piker: Republicans are 'terrorists'

Omar left after about 20 minutes. Piker stayed on stage with Fateh and turned to his own party. Democrats, he said, started calling migrants "a national security threat" in 2024, "and that's unacceptable." Any Democrat who won't say migrants make America great "is un-American," he said.

"I'm not even going to bring up the Republicans because they are the most un-American force in this country," Piker said. "They're terrorists. They are terrorizing our neighborhoods." Then he waved off the law itself: "A paperwork violation does not require deportation. That is cruel and unjust punishment."

He told any Democrat "with ambitions for higher office" to "demand that we abolish this rogue agency," meaning ICE. Earlier he said Trump's Minneapolis operation set "the Gestapo" on residents and was "kidnapping your neighbors."

Omar got her own shot in before she left. "Minnesota is not interested in a pedophile protection party," she said of the GOP, adding that "Minnesota does not come after the refugees, they send one to Congress."

What the record says

Three claims from that stage don't hold up against the government's own numbers and the law.

The jobs math. Pushing back on what she called the president's claim that "over 90%" of Somalis aren't in the workforce, Omar said more than 70% are, which she said beats "the average for the whole of Minnesota, which is at 60%." The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts Minnesota's labor force participation at 66.7% for September 2026. Her benchmark for the state was nearly seven points too low.

The "retreat." Piker claimed Minneapolis "solidarity" forced the Trump administration "to retreat." Border czar Tom Homan ended Operation Metro Surge in February and declared it a success, the AP reported. Homeland Security said agents had arrested about 4,000 people, and Homan said more than 200 had been arrested for impeding officers, NBC News reported. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress the agency was still looking for about 16,840 people in Minnesota with final removal orders, according to the AP.

The "paperwork violation." Entering the country illegally is a federal crime under 8 U.S.C. 1325, punishable by up to six months in prison for a first offense and up to two years after that. Illegal aliens with final removal orders have already been ordered out of the country. Removing them is the law working, not cruelty.

Why the timing matters

Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington home on Oct. 12. In a court filing nine days later, the Justice Department called her "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar" and said the warrant still had not been fully executed. Elmi is the surname of the man she married in 2009, whom critics have long said is her brother. Omar has called that claim lies.

On Monday, the same day as the event, 175 House Democrats signed a letter telling the Justice Department to take no further steps against Omar before the election. Hours later, she stood on stage and celebrated a network built to blunt federal immigration enforcement. Her party is asking investigators to back off while she boasts about being hard to catch.

Not every Democrat wanted any part of it. Rep. Angie Craig said embracing Piker was a mistake, Sen. Amy Klobuchar's campaign for governor called some of his statements reckless, and a half dozen DFL state senators asked for the event to be canceled, KSTP reported. Omar and Fateh went ahead anyway.

What's next

Minnesotans vote Nov. 3. Omar faces Republican John Nagel, a former state trooper, in the 5th District. The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to keep the search records sealed until agents finish executing the warrant. Democrats in tight races now get to spend the final week answering for what was said on a Democratic congresswoman's stage.