Rep. Ilhan Omar Archives - The Virginia Star

House Members of Progressive ‘Squad’ Grab More than $220 Million of Earmarks Since 2023

March 27, 2024 Just the News

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar standing in front of the US capitol (composite image)

Members of the “Squad” of progressive lawmakers in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrangled more than $220 million worth of earmarks included in spending bills since the start of fiscal year 2023, according to a watchdog group.

“These eight members, up from 6 last year, have put almost $220 million worth of earmarks into the last two years of congressional spending packages, for causes like environmental justice, diversity, and immigration assistance,” read a new report from OpenTheBooks.com.

DeSantis Calls to Expel Ilhan Omar from Congress over Somalia Video

January 31, 2024January 30, 2024 Just the News

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called for the House to expel Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar over a footage of her speaking in Somali in which she allegedly promised to prioritize the interests of Mogadishu and backed the territorial aspirations of the Somali government.

“Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport!” DeSantis posted on X, resharing the video footage. The original video was posted by the account of the Ambassador at Large of the Republic of Somaliland and included a translation of Omar’s remarks, the interpretation of which Omar has disputed.

Squad Members Criticize AIPAC for Reportedly Committing to Spend $100 Million to Defeat Them

November 17, 2023 Just the News

Progressive House lawmakers in the so-called Squad criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for reportedly committing to spend $100 million to defeat them.

According to a report from Slate, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are all targets of the $100 million AIPAC spending campaign.

Omar Says There’s ‘No Way in Hell’ She Will Attend Israeli President’s Congressional Address

July 13, 2023 Just the News

Rep. Ilhan Omar says there is “no way in hell” that she will attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress and that he should not even be invited to speak.

“There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma,” Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, tweeted Wednesday.

Despite Voting to Ban on Government Devices, Some U.S. Lawmakers Still Using TikTok

January 9, 2023January 8, 2023 Admin

Some lawmakers are active on TikTok even after concerns about the social media platform’s surveillance capabilities prompted Congress to ban it on some federal devices in December.

The bipartisan omnibus spending bill passed on Dec. 23 prohibits TikTok on executive branch mobile devices, with limited carveouts for national security, law enforcement and research purposes. However, Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan appear to be active on the platform, their accounts show, despite voting yes or “present” for the bill.

Commentary: Ilhan Omar Heads Down the Road to Islamofascism

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

I had a junior high social studies teacher who was fond of saying that if it reached its logical conclusion, liberalism would eventually become fascism. He was long dead before Ilhan Omar hit the scene, but he would be gratified to see his prediction in action.

Omar’s Combating International Islamophobia Act passed the House of Representatives on a narrow party line vote recently. If it becomes law, it will mandate a new State Department bureaucracy to report on anti-Islamic activity as a human rights violation. English is Omar’s second language, and the wording of the bill shows it. Its definition of Islamophobia is not precise. An example of the text includes “acts of physical violence against, or harassment of, Muslim people, and acts of violence against, or vandalism of, Muslim community institutions, including schools, mosques, and cemeteries, and instances of propaganda in government and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or promote racial hatred or incite acts of violence against Muslim people.”

Michigan Rep. Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Omar Participated with Groups Calling for Release of ‘Lady al-Qaeda’

January 21, 2022January 20, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota participated in events with Muslim-American advocacy groups that have called for Aafia Siddiqui’s release from a Texas prison.

The gunman who took hostages inside a Texas synagogue on Tuesday demanded the release of Siddiqui, who has often been referred to in the counterterrorism world as “Lady al-Qaeda.” Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 of attempting to murder U.S. nationals, according to the FBI.

Ilhan Omar Possibly Committed a Felony by Concealing Her Finances in Required Disclosure Form, Watchdog Group Alleges

September 2, 2021September 1, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar possibly committed a felony by failing to properly report her assets and income in her financial disclosure reports to the House of Representatives, a conservative-leaning watchdog group alleged in a complaint filed Tuesday.

The group, National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), demanded the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigate why Omar’s financial disclosures make no reference to the income she may have received from her memoir published in May 2020, as well as the Democratic lawmaker’s apparently gross undervaluation of her new husband’s consulting firm, which raked in nearly $3 million from Omar’s political campaign from 2018 through 2020, campaign finance records show.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Urges Biden to Increase Refugee Admissions Cap

August 30, 2021August 29, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Rep. Ilhan Omar has joined a group of Democrats in urging President Joe Biden to increase the refugee admissions cap to 200,000 for the next fiscal year to meet the “massive humanitarian need” in Afghanistan.

With the Taliban now in control of the country, the U.S. Department of Defense could house as many as 30,000 Afghan refugees at military bases across America, including Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. That figure alone is nearly three times the number of refugees who were admitted to the U.S. last year under President Donald Trump.

President Biden revised the annual refugee admissions cap in May to 62,500 for the 2021 fiscal year, up from the “historically low number” of 15,000 set by the Trump administration. Biden said his goal is to increase that figure again to 125,000 for the next fiscal year.

Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Ilhan Omar Continues to Evade Financial Disclosure of Reportedly Lucrative Book Deal

August 19, 2021August 18, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Multiple watchdog groups said Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar may have violated federal law for failing to mention any income received from her critically-acclaimed 2020 memoir in her latest financial disclosure report filed on Friday.

Omar reportedly signed a deal worth up to $250,000 for her memoir, “This Is What America Looks Like,” in January 2019, around the same time she was sworn into Congress. Omar’s communications director said the House Ethics committee approved the book deal, but the Democratic lawmaker’s financial disclosures covering the calendar years 2018 and 2019 contain no mention of the book or any advance income received upon signing a deal.

The book was published in May 2020 to rave reviews by the press and Omar’s Democratic colleagues. The Atlantic dubbed it one of the best political books of the year, and numerous high profile Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, praised on the book.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Urges Biden Admin to End Contracts Between ICE and Prisons, Calling Treatment of Immigrants ‘Systemic Abuse’

March 17, 2021March 16, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Rep. Ilhan Omar urged President Joe Biden’s administration in a letter Monday to end Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) contracts with prisons and jails.

The letter calls for Biden to issue an executive order to end ICE’s contracts with state, county and local jails due to the treatment of the detained immigrants and the facilities’ conditions. The Minnesota Democrat called the conditions of the facilities “systemic abuse.”

“Conditions in the municipal, county, and state jails and prisons contracting with ICE to detain immigrants mirror the systemic abuses in privately operated immigration detention facilities, including mental neglect, long term use of solitary confinement, sexual assault, and lack of access to legal counsel,” Omar wrote in the letter.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Urges Biden to Cancel $50,000 of Student Debt Per Person

December 22, 2020December 21, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has introduced a “bold resolution” asking President-elect Joe Biden to federally remove $50,000 of student loan debt per person.

The congress member introduced the resolution alongside Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Maxine Waters, and Alma Adams. The resolution outlines a path for Biden to use “excessive authority” to remove student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring there are no tax liabilities for federal student loan borrowers.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls Trump Campaign Events ‘Klan Rallies’

November 17, 2020November 17, 2020 Admin

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar referred to President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies as “Klan rallies” during a Monday interview.

Omar, who’s frequently criticized by the president during his rallies, made the comment in an interview with the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart.

“On a personal level, I have gotten accustomed to standing up to bullies in my life, and so on a personal level, it hasn’t really impacted me besides having my children be exposed to it,” said Omar.

ICE’s New Acting Director Plans to Change Public Perception of the Agency

October 5, 2020October 4, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

Tony Pham is focused on changing the narrative of Immigration and Customs Enforcement by highlighting the work agents do every day, he told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview.

Closing his third full week as the senior official performing the duties of the director of ICE, Pham told the DCNF that he plans to focus on addressing the public misconception of the agency and its employees by promoting discussion around the “remarkable work that the men and women of ICE do every day.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar Linked to Cash-for-Ballots Voter Fraud Scheme in Minneapolis

September 29, 2020September 28, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has been linked to a massive illegal vote-buying scheme in an elderly community in her heavily Somali district in Minneapolis. The illegal ballot harvesting operation is just the latest in a growing list of federal crimes the self-avowed democratic socialist is alleged to have committed in recent years, including marrying her brother to commit immigration fraud and student loan fraud.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Bernie Sanders Push Bill Taxing Billionaires 60 Percent to Fund One Year of Healthcare for All

August 9, 2020August 13, 2020 Corinne Murdock

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) introduced a bill Friday to tax billionaires sixty percent of their pandemic-earned assets. The proposed bill, “Make Billionaires Pay Act,” would use the tax money to cover individual healthcare expenses for one year.

In a tweeted video, Sanders argued billionaires have profited off the coronavirus pandemic while the rest of the country has suffered.

Sen. Blackburn Says Rep. Ilhan Omar Should Resign After Calling for Dismantling of U.S. Economic, Political Systems

July 9, 2020July 8, 2020 Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) should resign after the representative called for the “dismantling” of the U.S. “economy and political systems.”

Omar made the remark during a speech Tuesday to the Minnesota People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, The Daily Wire reported.