Ilhan Omar kicked out of ICE facility after DHS requires week's advance notice
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig were removed from Minneapolis ICE facility Saturday after the Trump administration imposed a new rule requiring a week notice.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., says she and other Minnesota lawmakers were kicked out of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Omar visited ICE's Whipple Building alongside fellow Minnesota Democrat Rep. Angie Craig, saying they were fulfilling their congressional oversight role. They were asked to leave the facility after being informed about a new Trump administration rule governing lawmaker visits.
"We were initially invited in to do our congressional oversight and to exercise our Article I duties," Omar told reporters after the incident. "When we made it in, it was with the authorization of someone who's been here for a really long time, who understood that we had a congressional duty to enter the building and see the facility."
"Shortly after we were let in, two officials came in and said they received a message that we were no longer allowed to be in the building and that they were rescinding our invitation and denying any further access to the building," she continued.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, center, joined by Reps. Kelly Morrison, left, and Angie Craig, arrive outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump's administration imposed a new rule on Saturday requiring lawmakers to give at least one week's notice before entering an ICE facility.
The move is the administration's second attempt at such an order. A federal judge previously struck down a similar requirement from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, finding that federal spending laws require that members of Congress receive unrestricted access to recipient facilities.
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Omar said her group was able to briefly question officials inside the facility regarding hygiene for detainees and other topics. She described the answers she received as "insane," and argued officials were downplaying how long detainees remain at the facility.
