Things got very entertaining when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tried to go after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota by showing up to the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE was detaining illegal aliens, for a visit in which she was presumably planning on trying to make ICE look bad. Instead, ICE cleverly fooled her and made her look ridiculous.
As background, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem instituted a new policy early this year in which she blocked unannounced visits to ICE facilities so as to stop politicians from pulling ICE agents away from their other, much more important duties.
Announcing it at the time, she said, “The basis of this policy is that advance notice is necessary to ensure adequate protection for Members of Congress, congressional staff, detainees, and ICE employees alike.” Noem continued, “Unannounced visits require pulling ICE officers away from their normal duties.” She added that “there is an increasing trend of replacing legitimate oversight activities with circus-like publicity stunts, all of which creates a chaotic environment with heightened emotions.”
That, in turn, meant Omar needed to schedule a visit to the Whipple facility, which she did, to visit the detainees. But when she showed up, they were all gone, as ICE had moved them right before she got there to make her look ridiculous, which succeeded. She then gave a press conference on the matter, with a reporter asking her, “When did you give notice? And I just want to make sure you did not see any detainees.”
Omar then explained when she gave notice and what had happened, saying, describing how the detainees were moved right before she got there, “Now, we gave notice eight days ago. We got confirmation yesterday that we were going to be allowed in, and the last detainee was taken out at 11:30 am, 30 minutes before we were set to arrive.”
Then, continuing with her ramble, Omar insisted, “And we and we also did ask, you know, how many, how many people came through today, which is why it felt convenient that no one was there. They said 10 when we first got there, and 10 were gone. And then they said there were another five.”
Continuing with the story and looking ridiculous, Omar said, “And so I circled back, and I said, ‘Can we go and see the five that are here? Because we have privacy release forms?’ And they said, ‘No, we cannot permit you to go into the cell to see the detainees.’ And I said, ‘Well, we don’t need to go into the cell. We can, you know, put the forms, slide them in, and then we can look through the glass and see what their conditions look like.'”
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Still not done, she insisted, “And then they oohed and awed for a little bit. And then, conveniently, as they were taking us towards the cell, someone said, there is not a single person left, and they took us into an empty cell. So it’s just the timeline and the stories seem very convenient for what they really were working very hard for us not to see and witness.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video